Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

dworldeater Bullet In The Head was originally conceived as a prequel to A Better Tomorrow. With producer Tsui Hark and John Woo fighting over the rights of the francise, Woo reworked his script and Tsui Hark rushed out his version. I have not seen Tsui Hark's film A Better Tomorrow 3 in years, but from what I remember Bullet In The Head is a far superior film and not a movie you will ever forget. The story starts in 1960's Hong Kong with a trio of tight knit, close friends that fight together, hang together and live their lives in poverty. After things go awry in a fight where Ben(Tony Leung) accidentally kills ruffian thug Ringo, our heroes flee to Vietnam to let things cool down and fence goods to try to make their fortune. As the film goes on it gets darker and more violent. Innocence is lost, greed brings betrayal, many people die and those who remain are broken and scarred for life. Influenced by Michael Cimino's Deer Hunter, but with lots of Woo's high octane, bullet ridden, blood splattered action. The three lead actors Tony Leung(Ben), Jacky Cheung(Frank) and Waise Lee(Paul) are all excellent. Simon Yam nearly steals the show as a Eurasian hit-man/mercenary Luke. Without going into every detail, Bullet In The Head is John Woo's darkest, most brutal and most intense film. Strong characters and top notch performances knock this out of the park. The shootouts compliment the melodrama and move the story along to its bleak climax. Bullet In The Head is an underrated masterpiece by my estimation and crucial viewing for fans of the heroic bloodshed genre and of 80's/90's Hong Kong cinema!

Sleazy_E when i first saw this movie i wasn't all that excited, since i had already seen ABT and the killer and i heard That Chow wasn't in it but it all changed. I was amazed of how good the acting in the movie was, especially Tony leung. The movie is about 125 min long but you never feel bored because this is one hell of a ride. This is arguably Woo's best movie. Waise, Jackie and Yam they all give top quality acting.The movie goes more deeper and is more brutal than any of Woo's movies so far. People say it's a ripoff from the Deer hunter, but it really isn't, it just has the same war in the background.It has very emotional scenes like the one where Tony kills Jackie, really breathtaking, i actually got tears. The scene where they make them drink the whole bottle of whiskey was also very cool since they referred to Chow yun fats story in A better tomorrow.I give this movie a 10 and that's what it deserves and nothing less then that. A bullet in the head still stand as Woo's best movie even today. Will ever get a movie like this...... i don't think so, it's one of a kind. MASTERPIECE

ExpendableMan If you've never seen a John Woo movie before, you're in for one hell of a surprise about forty minutes into Bullet in the Head. Up until this point, there has been violence in the film but it has mostly been restricted to street level brawling, clashes between armed police and war protesters in Saigon and punch ups in Hong Kong slums. Then at the height of an argument in a Triad owned nightclub, things get turned up to eleven as Waise Lee pulls a machine gun from out of a piano and massacres an entire room full of gangsters in one breathtaking swoop. After this, things barely let up as Woo mixes in harrowing prison camp madness with over the top gun battles. If this implies that Bullet in the Head has no heart however then nothing could be further from the truth; not only is this an incredibly violent movie, it might also be Woo's most emotional.Stamped over everything is in the indelible trace of the Tiananmen square massacre, which might explain the film's poor showing in Hong Kong, where it played to the people who faced it first hand far too soon for them to embrace it. Over fifteen years later though, Bullet In The Head could do with a reappraisal so that it might stand on its own two feet, rather than simply being viewed as an Eastern alternative to The Deer Hunter or Apocalypse Now.The Eastern setting though provides a fresh spin on the Vietnam war which had already been captured on camera by an America eager to exorcise the ghosts of the war. The story of three ghetto youths (Waise Lee, Jackie Cheung and future superstar Tony Leung) forced to flee Hong Kong, it captures them in their early days before sending them to Saigon, where the trio intend to take advantage of the war and make a fortune. Needless to say, things do not go entirely as planned and they have to flee once more with a box filled with gold they have captured from a local kingpin. Unfortunately for them, there is nowhere to run but into the Vietcong-infected jungle...For the first time, the true scale of the war is made readily apparent. In the East, it is sometimes known as The Second Indochina War as the conflict didn't restrict itself to Vietnam itself, spilling over into neighbouring Cambodia and Laos and affecting everyday citizens of countries who weren't even involved. Woo's vision of the 1960's Far East is one of unprecedented chaos triggered by the clash of Capitalist and Communist ideologies, where suicide bombs are detonated in traffic jams and citizens plucked from the street to have their heads blown off by overzealous military police. It's an uncompromising vision and no mistake.All of this is told from the eyes of our heroic trio and the effects of the war leave an impression on all of them. Their friendship is tested to the limit and watching it dissolving, counter-cut with earlier moments when they were smiling, happy youngsters is nigh on heartbreaking. Corny yes, but still heartbreaking.However, for those of you have seen a John Woo film before and want action on an unprecedented scale, well look no further. The aforementioned nightclub battle is just an impressive iceberg tip, as Woo hurtles the characters from one set piece to the next with a riotous enthusiasm. A riverside gun fight keeps things moving, followed by skirmishes in the jungle and a breath taking helicopter assault on a Vietcong camp, bullets flying in all directions as fireballs bloom upwards and bodies contort in slow motion death rattles. Provided you've got the unedited version, you'll also see a climactic car duel that is better than anything he has done since moving to the States.Action junkies then will be well sated but what about the rest of us who want bold, creative film making that doesn't have to rely on helicopter explosions to make a point? Well, Bullet in the Head delivers four career defining performances from the leads, a cathartic and emotional script, a harrowing impression of a world with a collapsing social order and a stark political message on the worries of Hong Kong citizens regarding their fate in the 1997 handover. All that's missing is a love story...oh wait, there's one at the beginning. Admittedly, sometimes it is a bit too violent for its own good and Woo could have eased off the throttle to let it breathe a bit, but this is still a film worth catching and a career high point for the auteur.

thebeautifulones I don't usually rate movies badly, so I'll give 7/10 because the actors all acted well given the limited material.Ben, Paul and Frank are all characters that are very real. Frank as the friend who is constantly being beaten up by his mum, but is totally loyal to Ben and Paul; Paul, the good friend turned bad, convincingly played by Waise Lee, though how his character eventually joins a company, or how TLCW's character, Ben has a son is not well explained. From the time frame of the movie, it didn't seem that they were in Vietnam for very long, for this I feel the producers should have explained how long Ben was away in Vietnam. The last part of the movie where there is a showdown between Ben and Paul seems to dominate, and hence makes the plot look as though it is hanging from the threads.What a pity, they had some really good actors in this movie, but the plot needs greater development...remake, anyone?