Last but not least, we have the "bullet time" segments. In portions of the game, Tequila will find himself surrounded by enemies. In slow motion, he dodges incoming bullets while killing his foes. These stages provide plenty of thrills, especially in later missions when the bad guys fire off six or seven rounds, forcing Tequila to bob and weave like Lennox Lewis.

All of this, along with the occasional mounted gun stage and "protect the innocent" segments combine to form an enthralling experience. It ends roughly eight to ten hours later, but gamers looking for a bigger challenge can play on the hard difficulty setting. Stranglehold also has a multiplayer mode, but it feels rushed. Players can take part in Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, using shooting skills in an attempt to hit the Leaderboards. Unfortunately, Tequila Time and Bombs don't really work that well in this mode.

Midway did an outstanding job with the presentation. The visuals capture the gritty look of a John Woo film, right down to the slam of a tequila glass on the counter or the obligatory flying doves. Some of the characters hardly look as realistic as others (particularly the big ogre that guards one of the Chinese drug lords), but that doesn't get in the way of the otherwise excellent environmental details and mostly smooth frame rate. As far as audio goes, Chow Yun Fat and the rest of the cast provide solid voicework, although it would've been nice to have a foreign language track.

Finally, if you spend an extra $10 for the collector's edition, you get a fully restored Blu-Ray edition of the Hard-Boiled movie, letting you overdose on Woo action. It would've been nice to have rewind and fast-forwarding options (to get right to your favorite action scenes), but it's still a great bonus.

John Woo's Stranglehold is a fine throwback to the action games from the good ol' days. It kicks so hard that it just might leave bruises. We suggest you take a few hits.