I love John Woo - I was lucky enough to see an early sneak screening of THE KILLER back in the day (1988) & I was so impressed with how well made the film was & the brilliant action choreography. Woo has made many great action films, some good ones and a few turkeys. This is one of the "holiday" turkeys. Ok, the gimmick of barely any dialogue - fine, you wanna try for that? Good on ya. And a revenge flick can be very satisfying but this one is so by the book, with every single trope you have ever seen that it actually becomes boring & even comical. Plus I haven't seen such a fake, phony cartoonish set of bad guys since DEATH WISH 3 - where a ridiculous fake "punk street gang" battled Charles Bronson. Here our broken, enraged father - called Godlock - get it - sorta close to God Like - wow, a stoned freshman would think that was totally cool, man - anyhoo, the Latino gang he is after in this breathes not one breath of reality - every stock cliche is there so by the end, you don't even care that Woo knows how to place a camera during a gunfight. But there IS a Christmas theme so you can always show it to Grandma next holiday season & all have a good chuckle! Ho Ho Ho!
Review of Silent Night
