After working with Jean Claude Van Damme on 1993's Hard Target, John Woo (and his stateside career) could only go up from there. In retrospect, Woo's American follow-up Broken Arrow is blatantly derivative of pretty much every Die Hard retread in existence (Speed's Graham Yost wrote the screenplay). Still, while seemingly just a standard mindless action flick, the film contains just enough of those signature John Woo touches to make it stand out from the rest of the pack. But not by much.

In Broken Arrow, Vic Deakins (John Travolta) and Riley Hale (Christian Slater) are two ace stealth bomber pilots on a top-secret training mission. But wouldn't you know it? Ol' Vic turns traitor and tries to kill Hale, steal some warheads, and hold the world hostage for a sizeable ransom (shades of Dr. Evil!). But the plucky Hale survives Vic's homicidal attack, and the two engage in an action-packed chess game in the Utah desert over who will get to the missing bombs first. And while a cute park ranger (Samantha Morton) shows up to help Slater's character, we all know that the underdog Hale will have to go it alone against the megalomaniacal Deakins. After all, this is a John Woo movie.

There are plot holes, leaps in logic, and all sorts of assorted goofs in Broken Arrow, but somehow, I still liked it. Some blatant Woo-isms are present in the film, but for the most part, they're downplayed (Christian Slater does brandish two guns in super slow-mo at one point, but no doves appear). As with many of Woo's films, Broken Arrow is about two men who are, in essence, opposite sides of the same coin. Consequently, the film almost seems like a dress rehearsal for Face/Off. Just take a look at John Travolta's villainous performance in Broken Arrow and compare it to his work in Face/Off. Here, Travolta gleefully sneers his way through the proceedings, but he still hasn't quite put his finger on the villain role just yet, as he would later do as the transformed Castor Troy. Broken Arrow is by no means a great film. It's just a fun (or dumb, depending on your mood) popcorn movie, but in the larger context of John Woo's career, it's an intriguing prelude to his lone Hollywood gem. (Calvin McMillin, 2003)