Instant Death

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.