I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Hong Kong action maestro John Woo's most bland of American action films. It's not a bad action flick and is actually better than most, but it's a pretty dull script about corrupt US military man John Travolta trying to steal a nuclear warhead and his subordinate, Christian Slater, trying to stop him with the help of a plucky park ranger, Samantha Mathis, which make me want to consider this film a sequel to "Pump Up the Volume." The action is decent and there are Woo trademarks like two gun, Mexican standoffs, enemies back-to-back on opposite sides of a wall, etc. but it feels like he's just going through the motions. The studio supposedly heavily re-cut the film and maybe there exists a director's cut that's much better. Disappointing for a John Woo film, but satisfying enough by Hollywood action film standards.

In his second Hollywood action movie, John Woo lives up to his tag- name "The Mozart of Mayhem" : and he certainly doesn't disappoint! One of the best things about this film was seeing a strong female role played by Samantha Mathias. For once Hollywood used a woman who did not have to rely upon a man to save her. This was not a "love interest" part, it could easily have been played by male or female. The direction was good, as with all John Woo's work, and not cluttered up with too many special effects. The action rattled along. John Travolta made an excellent villain and delivered some pretty cool lines - all credit to the script here for avoiding too much cheesy dialogue. Delroy Lindo as ever, was good, as was Christian Slater - good guys are never as much fun to watch as the villains!John Woo imposes his signature dramatic flair and, so, elevates this from the more generic action thrillers. The slo-mo balletic action beats. The poetic gun-play choreo. The prolonged stand-offs. The flash on this guy! Is it a case of style over substance for this movie? Probably. The story is essentially Slater and Travolta in a cat-and-mouse chase that encompasses the canyons and hills of the desolate Utah badlands. So, it's a travelogue, as well. This movie is far-fetched and mindless and anathema to airtight plotting. If nothing else, this movie is worth it for reuniting Slater and Samantha Mathis who rocked it so hard in "Pump Up the Volume". John Travolta is terrific. Christian Slater breaks typecast by playing a nice, sane soldier doing his duty. The love interest isn't an idiotic supermodel playing a nuclear scientist or something, but a park ranger, also doing her duty. She is cute, earthy, and actually believable. If you want a film that delivers well paced action, some great one-liners and plenty of thrills, Broken Arrow is one to watch.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Maj. Vic Deakins (John Travolta) and Capt. Riley Hale (Christian Slater) are tasked with flying the new stealth bomber on a low altitude test run with two real nukes. Colonel Max Wilkins (Delroy Lindo) is tasked with tracking them. While flying over Utah, Deakins tries to shoot Hale. Deakins ejects Hale and drops the nukes before crashing the plane. Pritchett (Bob Gunton) hired the group of ruthless mercenaries tracking the nukes. Park ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis) finds Hale and helps battle the bad guys. When the nukes are found missing, Broken Arrow is declared.This has some of the standard John Woo action. It's excessive and fun. I can do without his overuse of the Mexican standoffs but that's also his style. There is good stunt work and lots of explosions. Travolta proves that he can play the bad guy without a heart. Graham 'Speed' Yost finds a way to write another convoluted script that somehow works. This is more compelling that it has a right to be. It is a bit long. It needs to shorten the last bit on the train to make it more exciting. By the time Hale returns to his people, the movie needs to quickly blow up and wrap up.

Sure it's a ridiculous movie and has some laughable dialogue with some really cheesy moments. But for a action movie from the 90's, I give this movie a pass. Despite all the flaws and ridiculous aspect of this film, it's still a pretty enjoyable popcorn flick. With some good action set pieces and gunplay. Plus it was entertaining to watch playing the charismatic psycho villain. His agenda and motives aren't very clear, but he was fun to watch. In a movie like this going a bit overboard isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sure the action sequences maybe a bit outdated but it's still passable. Overall this is still a fun popcorn flick despite it's flaws.6.5/10