Instant Death

Lou ferrigno is pretty likeable, acting isn't the worse. it's nice and violent and lou is still a beast. My pet hate as a member of armed forces is the old guy who plays the colonel, I have NEVER in all my life seen somebody do a worse impression of a military person in my life,its definitely worth a watch.

This could have been great !!!! BUT Acting was awful, the editing was horrendous so many errors , the score levels were all wrong as well , apart from the odd action sequences which were ok , this has a very low budget feel , not a bad thing as I do like low budget movies if there done well, I thought that it went to far with the amount of deaths on the estate with the police not doing sod all unrealistic !!!! I thought the razor character was awesome very well acted . Apart from that . Disappointed.

All the money went to Lou and Razor but that's not to say it's to the detriment of your overall enjoyment. While the rest of the actors range from poor moderate or simply OK, and just a few are occasionally good… Lou and Razor do a fine job, Razor's heartless bastard performance actually convinces. The movie itself moves at a reasonable pace, first 5 minutes aside. It reminds you of the 51st state with slightly lower production values.

Personal take…

This is the sort of film of which reviewers who should not leave a review because they do not embrace the genre will say things about like, "just wasted a half hour of my life".

In my case, I feel fans of Indie Brit flicks with that American twist will enjoy it, or anyone who just wants to see Jerry Anderson doing his best Ray Winstone impersonation. If you want a deeper plot or high production values with a perfect script then this may not be for you. For the former group there are some sadistic scenes and some reasonable action to be had (given Lou's getting on a bit).

High art this is not, but a guilty pleasure for some… maybe!

Overall, I enjoyed it.

No pun intended - I really like Lou Ferrigno! He seems like a cool guy. Also while we don't have insane stunts here, they are quite solid and you can see that he does some stuff himself. He can move his hands and feet (looking at you Seagal - it's about that time to stop for you). Having said all that, maybe it wasn't the best idea to do that either - yes it plays a bit like Death Wish (I used the german title as summary line, though fans of Hulk or rather Lou will get a different kind of joke out of this too).

The bigger issue though is not the been there and done that part of it all! No it is that there seems a lack of acting ability for most involved. And while you won't watch this for that reason ... it would not have hurt if there was more gravitas to it. Not to mention that some of the violence is almost comical ... not in a good way. You really have to suspend your disbelief ... a lot.

Instant Death is your stock-standard "they hurt my family now I want revenge" movie that is pretty much a trope on it's own now. That in itself isn't a bad thing. I love that kind of movie.

These movies in general require a bit of leeway as far as script writing, acting, and general believability goes, and that is fair because these are not documentaries. But this movie really does abuse that leeway.

Razor as the "main bad guy" has about all the charisma of a cardboard box. But I do get the feeling that the actor playing him is doing everything he can with a script that feels like it might have been written by a 15 year old in between watching Death Wish, Taken and Rambo and deciding he can write better.

The fight scenes have no weight, I have honestly seen better fight choreography from uni student film projects. The plot is laughably bad and hard to believe even for a character as unhinged as "Razor".

The movie constantly dances on the line of being "so bad it's good" to straight up just "bad" but it finally bulldozes over that line with the incredibly underwhelming showdown with the main antagonist, which really felt like the 15 year old I mentioned earlier suddently realised he was going to run out of paper.

I talk a lot about the character of "Razor" because he is the only character you end up getting attached to. Even the main protaganist (John Bradley) is completely forgettable - an impressive feat of poor script writing considering it's Lou Ferrigno.

It's a movie that spends about an hour getting you ready for the ultimate ride of your life. But once the credits begin to roll, the movie will lie down, stretch out and smoke a cigaratte. You on the other hand will sneakily open your drawer and look for something else.