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Broken Arrow

It seems that on the eve before the highly acclaimed Face/Off was released in 1997, John Woo released Broken Arrow a year before, which had the same heightened action that was to come. Broken Arrow is a term used to describe nuclear device that has been lost. So when two Air Force pilots Deakins (John Travolta) and Hale (Christian Slater) are sent to fly a mission over the desert in a B3 bomber, the mission fails as Deakins messes it up. A rogue Deakins turns evil on a dime as he tries to kill Hale and parachutes to safety with the nuclear warheads aboard. Deakins allies with terrorists with the threat of a nuclear holocaust if their demands aren’t met. The only one who can stop Deakins is Hale who teams up with a park ranger.

I thought this was a great fun filled action movie. A lot of explosions, some good fight sequences, the movie has it all. Woo demonstrates is characterized taste for action and slow motion shots to over embellish certain scenes. This tour de force action thriller is an adventure across the Utah desert with guns, tremors and wicked awesome explosions. John Woo’s trademarks for action movies are very much intact. The action is compelling and exciting as it takes all forms in the air, on land, not quite at sea, but in a river in the desert. Planes, trains and automobiles (military vehicles), it’s all there.

Travolta and Slater display a feuding friendship that is competitive and geared into escalation from their stemmed established status quo. Travolta dazzles us with his coolness as when everyone is frightened something terrible is going to happen, he simply smiles and doesn’t run for cover. He makes a great bad guy as his erratic, almost loony behavior at times is very entertaining.

I couldn’t see much wrong with Broken Arrow. It’s a quality action flick that was good preparation for Face/Off. It’s not silly as Travolta’s bad guy ego is inflated and fun to watch as Slater’s righteousness is admirable to watch as he attempts to take him down and thwart a nuclear disaster of epic proportions.

Written by: John Berkowitz

Reviewers Rating: 7
Reader's Rating: 10.00
Reader's Votes: 1

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