Instant Death

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.

One of the hottest things in the action genre over the past decade or so is the 'Old guy gets back into the killing game to get revenge for a friend or family member'. Any actor over the age of 55 has pretty much done this movie. Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Sly Stallone, Clint Eastwood, and most recently, Keanu Reeves has gotten into the game. Now, it appears that even bodybuilding legend and former Incredible Hulk Lou Ferrigno has decided to knock the dust off of his old leather jacket and get some sweet Charles Bronson-style revenge! This film delivers in every way the action, the soundtrack, the ultra violence, girls, sweet revenge and lots of kills! The choreography is brilliant and Ara Paiaya makes Lou look amazing at fight scenes and shoot outs. Lou Ferrigno is 65! and moves like a 30 year old in this film. The Director obviously taught him a lot looking at his previous action films. One can only hope for more of the same! A must buy.

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.

Basically this is a poor version of Death Wish. The only difference it is really cheap looking and Lou Ferrigno's character has military experience, so he's a legit tough guy already why Charles Bronson's Paul Kersey character was still "soft" before becoming developing a killer instinct.

Now with the film:

• Looks really cheap. I understand why people are saying it was cheap looking. The quality of the film looks like it was recorded on someone's phone.

The action scenes are way too short. Wanted more detailed revenge and action scenes. Took 5 minutes of action and that was it, the good guy one and went home. The film itself is really short. Maybe 80 minutes? Went by real fast.

Overall, I got it for $2.50 at Book Off in NYC. So, it was okay for a one time watch on a boring Saturday. Nothing memorable and a forgettable cheap flick.

P.S.

I could have done without the sexual assault scene. That was very disturbing and not really needed.

If you look in an encyclopedia for something along the lines for 'Writing a script in Kindergarten'... there's a picture of this film. The lines are delivered just like they're being read. The plot is thin. A poor excuse for some violence.