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The 'legend' continues. Consider this 'John Woo Presents His Version of Max Payne'.

Sometimes a trend or way of doing things becomes popular because it is repeated so many times it becomes commonplace. I think this way about John Woo and his movies. I know, people will want me dead for that. I just never thought the man was that talented. I think much of his work is contrived and the acting and directing of anything not action-related is forced, at best.

I don't think he is a bad director and I do not begrudge him his success. I just think his movies lack substance. The idea is shoved down your throat instead of presented. Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off, and even Paycheck all suffered from a story line that needed to explain itself constantly to get its point across.

Hard Boiled was decent, if only for the action. This is where we get the protagonist Tequila for Stranglehold. There are so many cliches in there and they carry over quite intact for the video game. Drinking,s moking, near-suicidal cops have been done so many times it's cliche to call them cliche. That's what we get.

In a nutshell, Stranglehold is a decent-looking, decent-playing, mindless shooter. This is the girl you take out on two dates. She never meets Mom and you never think about a future. You just go through the motions in the hope of a payoff at the end. Sometimes, you end up a little disappointed.