Blood Out (2011)

Tagline:

He's laying down his badge to lay down the law.

Movie Review:

Luke Goss (Mercenary for Justice, Death Race 2, Tekken) plays Michael Spencer, a Sheriff in a small town who learns that his brother David has been killed by a gang for wanting out. Not receiving any help from the city authorities on the case, Michael throws in his badge and positions himself as a thug without a gang to call home (ala Raw Deal) so that he can get to his brother's killer. He also discovers that his brother's widowed girlfriend is a habitual drug user and sister to one of the members of David's gang, as well as pregnant with his child. Michael advances the ranks of the gang whilst also taking out other scum on the streets from rival gangs in the area, but always keeping his eye on the prize - gang leader Elias who ordered the kill on his brother.

First thing's first; this is a serious bait-and-switch movie. If you are here to see Vinnie Jones, Val Kilmer or for some reason Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson you are going to leave this film sorely disappointed. The DVD cover (shown here) has 50 Cent right up the front, with Vinnie Jones to his left, Val Kilmer porking it up behind him and Luke Goss - the star of the film - sticking his head out in the rear. Honestly this kind of cover is just false advertising and should be subject to the same rules and regulations as a retail outlet TV advertisement. "Buy this couch for $199 today" then when you get to the shop they never had any in the first place, but would you be interested in this one for $499? It's just not cricket.

Jones is only in the first ten minutes and has one scene when he starts the ball rolling by executing Michael's younger brother David, a member of Elias's (Tamer Hassan) gang who controls the North American region. He's not seen again until the final fight where he gets a handful more lines. 50 Cent has one scene as the lazy and arrogant cop Hardwick who refuses to follow up the case of David's death and tazers Michael for pushing him - he does appear briefly later though I won't spoil that.

And Val Kilmer.. well, he finally turns up in the last act as rival gang leader for the South American region, Arturo, and his "presence" certainly fills the screen. The guy has stacked on more kilos than Seagal ever did and he really, really needs a haircut. He chews the scenery with glee, walking with a cane with ivory handle and spouting dramatic lines of prose from invocation The Rite of Mars. The less said about his involvement in the movie the better, though you will laugh yourself silly when he's on screen, just liked in Hardwired.

With that out of the way, I did enjoy this movie. It was filmed in that modern hyperactive way but the fights were clearly visible, just shaky. Luke Goss did a terrific job as a vigilante cop infiltrating a gang and truly is the movie's saving grace. He was very believable and looked the part when he got tattooed and chain-smoked. This is definitely a good role for him and reminds me of Jason Statham quite a bit, both in character and in build. The opening five minutes was pretty weird though and left me wondering where this film was going. Michael heads up a drug-bust that goes bad when one of the bad guys holds a little girl hostage. Michael doesn't see the girl and fires, killing both man and hostage. The next scene you would expect to see him getting raked over the coals, his badge taken away and put on suspension, but instead the Captain gives a "Good job today everyone, no-body killed." speech. Michael asks "What about the girl?" to which the Captain replies "Collateral damage." What the hell? It's also never referenced again and is not a catalyst for any other part of the movie. There's a few other "why is this here?" scenes as the movie progresses, like the S&M stuff.

Other worthy mentions are Tamer Hassan (Layer Cake, Unleashed, 7 Seconds) as gang leader Elias who plays the role convincingly without going over the top (unlike Val Kilmer who orders his girls to "Dance!" while on a phone call from his pool side reclining chair). A real star here was Ed Quinn (TV's Eureka), a "nice" thug that befriends Michael and is brother to David's ex-girlfriend. He tries to get her cleaned up and he also has a strong sense of loyalty to Michael which is one of the film's best chemistries, far better than the thrown-in-because-we-have-to-have it sex scene between Michael and one of Elias' (hot) female lieutenants and keen sadomasochists (the gorgeous AnnaLynne McCord, also in 50 Cent / Val Kilmer vehicle "Gun").

I won't give it away but there is a fantastic moment right on the one hour twenty-minute mark where Michael is involved with a car crash. Notice I didn't say IN a car crash, but with, as in the cause of it. I had to watch it in slow-motion three times to make sure I was seeing it right but the scene is one of the most ridiculous I have ever seen, right up there with Steven Seagal decapitating Japanese businessmen from the third story of a building in Out For a Kill.

This is Director Jason Hewitt's first film, although he has produced many DTV films in recent years - Cabin Fever 2 and Wrong Side of Town stand out the most to me. He did a pretty reasonable job, though he would do well to put the camera on a freaking tripod every now and then. You could get motion sickness watching too many modern DTV movies. Overall Blood Out is a pretty decent vigilante-revenge action movie with a few silly sub-plots and needless scenes, but with a straight-shooting main plot with enough shoot-outs and fights to keep you interested throughout it's not-overlong 85 minute runtime. And you get to laugh at Val Kilmer's hair to boot.

The Video:

Video was sharp and clear though strangely enough appeared to be incorrectly framed. The DVD is presented in scope at 2.35:1 ratio which, on occasion, leaves you looking at talking necks, not heads. It was clearly meant to be full-frame 16:9. It's a little distracting to be honest. Sound is fine though quiet. Runtime 85 minutes.

Sourced From:

A new release rental DVD.

Trailer:

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Hardwired (2009)

Tagline:

They stole his past, now he's taking back his future.

Back of DVD:

After losing his wife in a horrific car accident, Luke Gibson (Academy Award Winner Cuba Gooding, Jr., Best actor in a supporting role for Jerry Maguire, 1996) wakes up in the hospital to find his once idyllic life on the brink of destruction. Implanted with a lethal microchip and monitored closely by a Hope Industries executive (Val Kilmer), Gibson is plagued by strange visions and haunted by a past he cannot remember. If he wants to survive, his only chance lies with a group of renegade hackers who may be the only ones who know how to stop the dangerous corporation before it's too late. Also starring Michael Ironside (Terminator Salvation).

Movie Review:

The Matrix has influenced a lot of movies. Although it itself was influenced by everything from Wargames to Tron and probably even Dark City, The Matrix really pushed the whole 'cyber' culture down the masses throats in a big way. There was a failed attempt before that with The Lawnmower Man, but that was quickly forgotten (though it's a guilty favourite of mine). Hardwired is another movie that owes its existence to both of those movies. I think Gooding Jr. has been having some acting classes form the school of Keanu as well.

Luke (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his wife get into their car and start driving away. Only seconds later their car is hit side on by a four wheel drive (figures) and his wife dies from sustained injuries. Luke is hospitalised and not expected to live. The Doctor sees that his medical insurance has expired and is about to send him to take his chances in the public waiting rooms, when a couple of black-suited guys turn the wall into a TV, through the magic of cyber-stuff or whatever. On the screen is second-in-charge of the massive corporation Hope Industries, Virgil (Val Kilmer). Virgil tells the doctor they will pick up the bill, in return for performing some experimental surgery on Luke that will save his life.

After a bit of dodgy CG animation of some sort of CPU being installed into his head, Luke wakes up in his hospital bed, with no memory of who he is. He sees a guy trying to sell him a watch and freaks out a bit. Honestly if you woke up in hospital and some dude tried to sell you a Rolex you'd probably do the same. His sister (Teyla from Stargate: Atlantis) says that no-one else was in the room and takes him home. She shows him around his house but nothing jogs his memory, though he is told he had a wife who died. Luke sees another strange illusion, this time a hot blonde selling whiskey. He freaked out more over this than he Rolex guy and runs out into the street where we see he is being watched by the black-suited guys.

More than the black-suited guys, Luke is being watched by a couple of cyber-punk type kids in a beat up old van. You can tell they are cyber-punk because they have red and blue hair and pasty white skin. They aren't called Neo or Trinity, but they aren't far from it. They are more like that Aussie kid who was in the soapie Home and Away who went on about what Tasty Wheat tasted like, and was also the digital pimp to the girl in the red dress. The real "cool" nerd types that say LOL instead of actually laughing.

The now totally freaked-out Luke tracks down the Doctor that operated on him and demands answers. The Doctor doesn't get much out before Luke is taken over by an extreme, ringing pain in the head; it turns out questioning the implant results in pain and can even blow your head up, like Scanners. Luke sees dozens of the guy selling Rolexes and loses his shit so bad he smashes the window to a shop and steals one. A security guard tries to stop him, but (and this is when it gets weirder), Luke starts seeing giant text messages in the sky: "Safety's On. We won't let you die." Luke understood the 'safetys on' part and runs from the security guard, who tries to fire but can't (because... the safety's on). These cyber-geeks have hacked into the chip in Lukes head and sent him message overlays and directions to their car. After the awkward introductions, he is taken to see Michael Ironside (I always get a kick out of seeing him in movies. It's like seeing Lance Henriksen. By the way, keep a close watch on the final shots of this film.). Ironside and his disabled son "Keyboard" (See! Cyber-geeks) get all Blue pill/Red pill on Luke and explain what has happened to him and how they need his help to take down Hope Industries. Luke and the geek patrol proceed to find the key players in the brain-chipping game and deal with them, usually violently.

Hardwired is entertaining but, frankly, a bit crap. I will re-emphasise that I was entertained throughout, but there are many issues in this, the first being Gooding Jr's Keanu style wooden acting. When he tries to emote, he fails. He always looks like someone has slapped him in the face with a trout, which I suppose is fair enough when you keep getting harassed by Rolex salesmen. The whole "corporations run the world" thing has been done to death, though I did like the opening montage of well known company logos rendered on famous buildings and locations; the Windows logo at Stone Henge, the Statue of Liberty projecting a spinning Playboy bunny logo, the McDonalds logo emblazoned on the wall of the Hoover Dam.

Gooding Jr. I don't know too much about. I don't think I've seen many or any of his bigger movies. Like I said before, he's pretty wooden but he does get to kick a few arses. There's a nice roundhouse kick early on, and he shoots a few guys. He holds his gun like Seagal which was pretty amusing. Gooding has done a whole stack of DTV movies in recent years. I'll check out a few more in the future.

I have to give special mention to the best actor in this movie, Val Kilmers hair. Don't go looking at the cover up the top, I have no idea what was going on in that photo because it NEVER happens in the movie. It looks like it was taken ten years prior. Val Kilmer has an awesome blond hairpiece that combined with his nanna glasses (complete with chain) and his inability to drink a glass of water without looking ridiculous make for spectacular entertainment on its own. Kilmer himself never leaves his office building and is filmed against green-screen most of the time. Actually he reminds me a lot of a long haired Lumbergh from Office Space. Scroll to the bottom of the screen to see what I mean.

Hardwired isn't really that bad, it's just pretty stupid. I didn't look at the clock once so that's a good thing. It's quite pretty and the Hollywood OS makes plenty of appearances, along with much stock bleeping and blooping. At least no-one says "I've hacked into the mainframe" or "It's a UNIX system! I know this!". So, no space hovercrafts, Sentinel robots or Oracles but plenty of geeks with handles for names and computers with fifty screens like the one from Swordfish (hey, another bad hackers movie) but still worth watching. I could probably stand to watch it again even. Just don't expect anything new. Hey, it's DTV - why would you want to expect that anyway?

The Video:

The video is excellent overall, but this is a new release, reasonably budgeted (for DTV) movie so you would expect it. The picture is very sharp and the colours vibrant, particularly all the computery whatsits. Sound clear as a whistle and quite dynamic. Reviewed the dual-layer R4 disc in 16:9 widescreen. Runtime 94 minutes.

Sourced From:

Big W for $8.94

Trailer:

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