By Geno McGahee
John Woo’s HEROES SHED NO TEARS has a lot of RAMBO in it and that’s not a bad thing. There’s a lot of gunfire and muscles and the kill count is satisfactory if you’re a fan of the 80’s style of super action film.
This was one of John Woo’s early films and it shows but the rawness and grit were really nice and all the pieces were there. There is a mixture of gunplay and fist fighting to make this keep this exciting. It turns into a lone wolf, one man army sort of film with sadistic bad guys that need to be taken out and it’s done in an impressive and cartoony sort of way and you don’t get better than that.
The cinematography is really good and stylish and the film pulls no punches, killing children along with adults and that is a ground that a lot of action films of this ilk will not try. It worked here. I enjoy really evil bad guys, especially when they laugh at their evil deeds as they have done here. Nicely done!
Chan (Eddy Ko) does a good job as the lead and his character isn’t one dimensional. There is a nice transition from badass to smarter survivalist, using different tactics to live. This film tries to separate itself from the others of this style at the time and does so well, but stays with the winning formula.
If you like RAMBO and COMMANDO, this is right in your wheelhouse. This was a lot of fun. It was clumsy at times and doesn’t hit the mark entirely, but it hits enough to make this a lot of fun. I highly recommend it.
Rating 7/10
BLU-RAY FEATURES
BONUS FEATURES
Interview with star Eddy Ko
New essay by author, film programmer, and Asian film expert, Grady Hendrix
PROGRAM INFORMATION
Type: Blu-ray/DVD/Digital (iTunes, Amazon, Vudu)
Running Time: 93 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen
Audio: 5.1 Surround Sound/2.0 Stereo
Language:Cantonese, Mandarin with English subtitles, English
