| Broken Arrow | | Cast : | John Travolta, Christian Slater | | Director : | John Woo | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | February 09, 1996 | | DVD Released Date : | September 03, 2002 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 04, 2005 | | Summary | pretty damn good | Content
 | A favorite of mine when i was a kid. here i am 10 years later still watching it. Back when Travolta was still popular, and Christian Slator wasn't a wife beater, this movie rocked. hell, it still rocks. I still remember seeing this one in the theatres... ahh memories |
| Rating | | | Date | July 24, 2005 | | Summary | Well I have seen much DUMBER action flicks... | Content
| ...this one is fairly dumb as action flicks go but gets by on the screen charisma of its cast, especially John Travolta and but also Christian Slater and the yummy-delicious Samantha Mathis (Slater's costar in "Pump Up The Volume" ages ago). Had much worse actors been cast instead, this would've been far more of an unwatchable mess.
It opens with what is possibly the single most comically FAKE boxing scene ever put on film, and the plot is strung together by several similarly striking cliches and gaping departures from reality. In fact I was often wondering if John Woo is actually a satirist in disguise, some of the scenes and dialogue were so drop-dead cheesy and ridiculous...almost campy, in late David Lynch style!
However, along with the ever-pleasing eye candy courtesy of Ms. Mathis, the excellent camera work and breathtaking desert locations do a fairly good job of distracting us from the overwhelming cheese factor, adding up to a fairly brisk and painless 2 hours. Not sure I'd actually want to see this movie again, God bless Netflix. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 14, 2005 | | Summary | It put me to sleep involuntarily. | Content
| I really, really wanted to remain awake for the final 15 minutes of this craptacular flick, but I couldn't do it. I just couldn't handle it. I guess the explosions and plot incredibilities just desensitized me to sleep. Slater tosses a can of gas on the hood of Travolta's humvee and that slows him down for, what, 15 minutes? 20 minutes? Not probable. Not remotely. About the only intriguing thing about the movie was waiting to see how Howie Long would handle his lines, but he didn't really have any. Thank God for small favors. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 18, 2004 | | Summary | Stop hitting him! | Content
| I found myself enjoying this movie, and it absolutely flew by. It was fast paced, and while there were the rare slow moments, you were never constantly looking at the clock in the dark, trying to figure out what time it is. The only problem I had with the film was how Christian Slater constantly was the one everyone seemed to want to beat up. No way. Over my dead body first. It was also written by Graham Yost (Speed) - so that's a good thing right?
There was a bit of a hassle trying to actually watch this movie. When I got lent it, I got home, all excited about watching it, switched on my DVD player, opened the DVD case - and bam, no disc. After much checking my bag, checking the case, to check it hadn't suddenly appeared, and checking the booklet insert thing (it's bendy, so I'm guessing it's not in there!), and much hunting around the owner's home (open your eyes, it has to be somewhere), which consequently led to ME being blamed for losing/breaking/making it vanish into thin air. So now I've been bought a copy, while the owner still has an empty case. (If he thinks I'm keeping it, he's got another thing coming - especially since he thinks I've lost it)
After settling down to watch it, checking and double checking the disc was still there, I found myself enjoying the whole movie. I didn't like John Travolta as the 'bad' guy though - he seemed very camp about the whole thing, and it just doesn't suit him. He played almost the exact same character in Face Off. He speaks through gritted teeth when he's getting angry ("Would you mind not shooting at the thermonuclear weapons"), which just emphasise the size of his teeth, and the way he smokes just annoys me. Just let the nicotine stain your fingers man and be done with it.
Christian Slater is really cute in this. It was 1995/6, so after seeing him recently, he doesn't have as much of a beer belly or is his hairline meeting his ass, and his hair in general is really nice. For people who say he's no good as the 'hero', they're wrong. The 'love' story between him and the park ranger girl (who looks constantly lost throughout) is totally unbelievable (like you're gonna fall in love with someone who you've a) just met and b) is putting you in the face of danger), and the exact same thing happened 2/3 years in Hard Rain, between Christian and Minnie Driver. It does not work.
There are at least 4 or 5 exploding helicopters, so John Woo was having loads of fun, quite literally blowing up his entire budget, on special effects, which aren't really that special.
Much of this is similar, or stolen, from other action movies, including Mission: Impossible, Speed, and Die Hard. There are probably many more. The plot is pretty much overused, and the dialogue isn't up too much (I wasn't really concentrating on that), and it revolves around a ticking timer - just like the bomb in Speed "if you go over 50mph, this bus will exploooooooooooddddddddeeeeeeeee". Thank you, thank you very much.
I really enjoyed this movie, and I will quite happily get my OWN copy, once I've stopped going mad on birthday presents. (I'm limited to one DVD a week, so I can go all out on birthdays - isn't that a shame?) Christian Slater is just divine. So I own True Romance, Robin Hood, and I've seen this and Hard Rain. What else is worth watching? |
| Rating | | | Date | May 10, 2004 | | Summary | Travolta makes a great villain | Content
| Up until Broken Arrow I hadn't seen a single Travolta film that I had enjoyed but this break from his usual fare was fantastic. He was perfect as the villian. The pacing and special effects are great too. Over all it's a great, fun and fast paced film. |
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