John Woo's 1998 TV movie Blackjack cast Dolph Lundgren as a bodyguard with a phobia for the color white. John Woo is one of the most influential action directors of all time, with his stylized setpieces being a major influence on everything from The Matrix to the John Wick series. He's also famous for recurring themes and motifs like brotherhood, redemption through violence, characters wielding two pistols and lots of doves. After directing action classics in Hong Kong like The Killer, he made his American debut with 1993's Hard Target.
He spent a decade in Hollywood, where he met with mixed success. To his fans, the movie that felt the most like his Hong Kong work was Face/Off, which was an action blockbuster the likes of which don't get made anymore. His 2000 sequel Mission: Impossible 2 was a huge hit but hasn't aged well, while his war epic Windtalkers was a box-office disappointment. He later returned to China, where he directed the acclaimed historical war movie Red Cliff starring Tony Leung.
One of Woo's most unusual projects during this time was Blackjack, which was filmed as a pilot for a show that didn't happen. Blackjack stars Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV) as Jack Devlin, a bodyguard assigned to protect a supermodel named Cinder from a mysterious assassin. Jack also has to care for the orphaned daughter of a late friend. While he makes for an exceptional bodyguard, Jack also suffers from leukophobia, an irrational fear of the color white. This due to a flashbang grenade exploding in front of him in the opening, which also triggered a traumatic memory of his father's murder.
It's fair to say Blackjack has a unique premise in this regard, as chromophobia is a condition very rarely depicted in movies or TV. When his condition is triggered, Dolph Lundgren's Jack is left dazed and disoriented - which is bad in a gunfight. Jack deals with this by wearing glasses all the time, but of course, the story has to contrive instances where he can't avoid the color. The most outrageous is when he chases the killer into a dairy and is showered with milk during a shootout. Somehow, the killer quickly deduces Jack's fear and thus begins to dress in white during later encounters.
Despite being a TV movie shot in Canada, Woo still brings his stylish flair to Blackjack. It retains his stylish camerawork and themes, in addition to featuring some great gunfights. The whole affair is undeniably over the top and goofy - including Jack killing gunmen while bouncing on a trampoline - but it's still recommended for fans of John Woo's work, especially as it came between Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2. It's also a good showcase for Dolph Lundgren, who gets to play a much suaver and charming character than his usual array of heroes. Jack wears nice suits, practices magic tricks and even gets a slo-mo dance scene. Blackjack also ends on a hopeful note, with Jack able to overcome his condition long enough to defeat the killer in the finale.
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