Bullet In The Head (1990)

BULLET IN THE HEAD is John Woo's attempt to make a film as powerful and profound as DEER HUNTER. He succeeds in the power, with some incredibly intense scenes, but fails in the profundity because of a complete lack of subtlety.

Now the disregard for subtlety is one of the things I like about HK cinema as a whole, but it's clear Woo wants to be taken seriously here, as an artist with something to say about the human condition... but he doesn't have the maturity to pull it off. He does have a talent for adrenaline and testosterone-melodrama though, and the film delivers on that in buckets - after about 1 hour in it just builds and builds in intensity.

I'd like to see the original "boardroom ending", as the tacked on car joust is really just too daft!