Rating of
2/4
"Broken Arrow" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/21/11
A US stealth bomber pilot steals its nuclear payload to hold the government to ransom with only his erstwhile comrade and a Park Ranger in a position to stop him. Yet another no-brainer from John Woo, Broken Arrow features every cliche from the Hollywood action playbook, including exploding helicopters aplenty, endless slow motion shoot outs and literally everything blows up in an enormous fireball (hell, one of them's even nuclear!) It features the machine gun toting hijackers providing the out of the frying pan into the fire into another frying pan scenarios of Die Hard and the runaway train finale of Speed, all set in some pretty desert locations and it all happens with digital clocks ominously counting down time after time after time. Christian Slater is likeable enough as the hero and Travolta is clearly enjoying himself as the grinning psychopath but there's little in the way of imagination or invention, it just preferring to stick to the formula with mechanical efficiency. Not exactly terrible, but there's also nothing here you won't have sat through during every other action blockbuster you've ever seen.
