"Would you mind not shooting at the thermonuclear weapons?"

John Woo returns to Hollywood with this action film that puts John Travolta and Christian Slater at odds. Woo's trademark dance-like violence and gunfire is here in great quantity; any more, and the movie would have been a simple ninety-minute explosion.

The fans of Woo's Hong Kong films were again disappointed in this, his second American film, presumably because it lacked his trademark melodrama, which adds a level of intelligence into the essentially brainless action. Another reason (that I take as a point in its favor) could be that Broken Arrow is brighter, less brooding and gruesome -- and consequently less oppressing with Woo's standard anti-violence subtext. But taken in its own right, Broken Arrow compares favorably with its American contemporaries. Hollywood can be much more far-fetched than this, and, somehow, there's enough time to involve the audience (mildly) in the characters. Hence, it becomes fairly exciting, satisfying action flick.