John Woo is known for his high-octane action flicks, so he decided to challenge himself (and us) by producing a movie with no dialogue. There IS sound (radios, police radios, etc) but no spoken words. Joel Kinnaman plays the father of a young boy who was killed by a stray bullet during a street fight on Christmas Eve. After mourning, recovery and getting pumped up, he goes after the gangs responsible a year later. As expected, there is an extended car chase and lots of gun fights, but most of it lacks much originality or wow factor (or should that be “woo” factor?). Woo tries to create some emotion with sweet moments of reflection, but it’s syrpy and ineffective. Kinnaman alternates between weakly desperate and sternly determined, but seldom reveals much depth. Overall, this was an interesting experiment, but Woo’s lack of anything new or different renders this film a noisy, but quiet dud. 
(2.5 / 5)
