John Woo Masters the Videogame: The stylish director and his acting protégé switch to pixels for Stranglehold

There’s no more iconic image in modern action movies than a grim-faced anti-hero diving through the air in slow motion, armed with righteous anger and a blazing pistol in each hand, his long overcoat rippling like Superman’s cape. This moment has been imitated — and now parodied — so extensively it’s hard to believe it originated with a single director: the peerless John Woo.

Sometimes called the most influential action filmmaker working today, most North Americans know Woo from his Hollywood hits Face/Off and Mission: Impossible II. But movie (and often game) geeks — including disciples/imitators Quentin Tarantino and the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix) — revere his mid-’80s to mid-’90s Hong Kong canon of dramatic, bloody, beautiful gangster thrillers like A Better Tomorrow and The Killer. With a résumé like his, the only surprise is that it’s taken this long for Woo to turn his auteur’s eye to videogames, but the power of today’s PCs and next-gen consoles at least means resurgent developer Midway Games can do the job right.  A third-person action and shooting romp, Stranglehold continues the story of Hard Boiled, Woo’s explosive 1992 movie masterpiece. Crucially, the game also features the cool fire of Asian megastar Chow Yun-Fat, reprising his role as Inspector Tequila for his first pixilated performance. The plot is something about kidnapping and Russian mobsters in Chicago, but it’s really only an excuse to let Tequila shoot it out in nifty locations like the Field Museum’s dinosaur hall.

The Woo hallmarks are all here: balletic action sequences, face-to-face standoffs, those double-fisted “Gun Fu” shootouts and even doves in flight. As you run up stair railings, swing on chandeliers and leap across rooftops you’ll use “Tequila Time,” a form of slow motion that’s both a nod to Woo’s style and a way to give you an edge during the heroic bloodshed.

And it all looks great, of course, especially Chow, whose lanky charisma was captured via full-body scans. PS3 players can also get a Collector’s Edition of Stranglehold (about $10 more), which includes the first ever high-def remastering of Hard Boiled. Watch it and learn from the master.

In 2001, Halo: Combat Evolved launched with the Xbox and really did evolve the first-person shooting genre. Three years later, Halo 2 replaced it as the top-selling Xbox title. It played great, looked great, and five-million gamers regularly compete online. But, honestly, the story was muddled, and it ended with the most irritating set-up for a sequel since Back to the Future Part II.

Now the lizardy Covenant aliens are back, and they’ve overwhelmed Earth’s defenses, leaving cybernetically enhanced supersoldier Master Chief to save humanity. Again. More than 800,000 players have already tested a rough version of Halo 3 — a sign series developer Bungie Studios is determined to “finish the fight” in style. Expect spectacular vistas, faster, smarter enemies and expansive online competition. So if your computer crashes on Sept. 25 don’t even bother calling the IT guy — he’ll be “off sick,” convalescing with his overheated Xbox.