Instant Death

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.

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.

This is pretty bad. Tries to be "John Wick" but without the budget. Or cinematography. Or fight choreography. Or editing. If you somehow stick around through this collage of imitation scenes that we've all seen somewhere before, you'll notice that director Ara Paiaya generously credits himself as the DP, editor, visual effects supervisor, action director, fight choreographer, Lou Ferrigno's martial arts instructor, music supervisor, and colourist. I like this, because it makes it easy to know who to blame for how horrible this movie is; Paiaya clearly doesn't know much about how to do any of those jobs, and doesn't care to spend the budget to get people with real experience to handle them. I like this as well, since trying to do high octane action on the budget of a production meeting means we get some truly unintentionally hilarious stuff. I guess what I'm saying is that while I enjoyed watching this movie, I can only recommend it to other masochists, so it's gonna get a 4/10. Eh, make that a 3.

Ferrigno, (Special Forces fighter John Bradley) left the army six months ago, and is suffering PTSD. After travelling to the UK he's drawn into the world of Razor (Jerry Anderson), a drug dealer with a very sadistic nature. This is the usual trope that we see in these movies: Razor's henchmen rape Bradley's daughter on her dining room table, and commit other awful acts, which are meant to convince us viewers that what follows is perfectly justified.

There is no tongue-in-cheek humour in all this and I kept wondering how all this mayhem could be going on with no apparent police reaction.

I like watching action and war movies but frankly, this film was a bit too hardcore for me. If you like gore and sadism it'll be your kind of movie.

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.