Hologram Man

HOLOGRAM MAN seems to be a passion project of action regular Evan Lurie, who not only co-leads the movie but also wrote and produced it. Lurie abandoned acting right before the slump of the video market to pursue a career in art and music, but he leaves behind one of the more colorful magnum opuses you can expect to find from B-movie stars. This one is pretty weird and won't appeal to most general viewers, but it's also an adrenalized rush and one of the sounder-looking productions from the PM Entertainment library.

The story: Imprisoned in holographic state for five years, a vicious anarchist (Lurie) achieves near-immortality upon being sprung by his gang, and the only one who can bring him down is the cop who arrested him in the first place (Joe Lara).

Lead star Joe Lara is a goofy hero of yesteryear's low budget scene, and the movie features a surprisingly great cast that includes Michael Nouri, John Amos, Joseph Campanella, Alex Cord, Arabella Holzbog, Tiny Lister, Derek McGrath, William Sanderson, and Nicholas Worth, but I'd be lying if I wrote that Lurie doesn't steal the movie out from under all of them. His character – Slash Gallagher – belongs among the ranks of villains so cheesy and overblown that they become spellbinding, like THE LAST DRAGON's Sho'nuff and BATMAN & ROBIN's Mr. Freeze. Lurie shows off his aptitude for action well enough, but for once, the bulk of the strength he brings to the movie is in his presence, which he accentuates via some memorably overblown delivery and the worst braids ever seen on the head of a white man.

The movie is full of weird ideas, beginning with the notion that a person's consciousness can be extracted into digital form – a digital form that can be encased in synthetic skin, shoot electricity at people, and attack you through your computer monitor. If you can't roll with that sort of thing, don't even bother with this one, but it will give you some great times if you already know what you like. It helps that this one clearly has a decent budget behind it, and a production design that's more balanced than the B-movie norm; the world largely looks like something that could actually develop, with only hints of MAD MAX or STAR WARS influences here and there. The "message" of the movie – about the potential of improperly-harnessed technology to infringe on civil rights – feels a little out of place but is still a nice touch.

Disappointingly, the action can be lacking: the numerous shootouts are generally filmed better than the low-budget norm but get repetitious after a while, and there aren't enough fight scenes for my taste. The final showdown is an awkward green-screened thing a'la the VR brawls of EXPECT NO MERCY. The film would have earned a higher rating had it delivered in these areas, but honestly, it just misses out even as it is. Particular fans of Evan Lurie will like it, and lovers of low-grade sci-fi will also have a ball. Know yourself before you buy this, and don't hesitate for too long if you think this might be for you.

PM Entertainment was really starting to roll around this point, and they were probably thinking this was going to be their breakthrough point. They apparently had a sizable budget, great locations, and a screenplay filled with action and a huge body count.

Upon seeing the finished product, it seems something went very VERY wrong. Most of the blame can be put on the incompetent editing (the problem that you usually find on the particular PM movies that went wrong.) Often new scenes start up in what seems to be the MIDDLE of the scene - including the opening sequence! Action sequences sometimes are missing key shots, so that people or vehicles are suddenly in a new position without us seeing how they got there. If a particular action scene isn't confusingly cut like that, it's instead cut in a way that makes all the shooting and explosions boring.

Elsewhere in the movie, a few shots are sliced up and spread throughout the particular scene (in one instance, it results in someone dying, then seen miraculously alive!) And some scenes are utterly useless, like the scene where the hero goes through a virtual reality training course. Sure, the computer graphics (for the time) aren't bad, but this scene serves no purpose except for eye candy.

The rest of the movie is mostly just as forgettable. Having both a hero and a villain look and act like Lorenzo Lamas was probably not a good idea. I admit I did get a few giggles with William Sanderson cast as a computer geek. There are a few other laughs, but otherwise it's an unbelievably dull effort that seems to go on forever. The only possible explanation I can think of is that maybe the work-in-progress cut was mistakenly shipped to the video people instead of the final cut.

After viewing this movie, all I can say is "odd. Very odd." The sci-fi part of it seemed a bit overly-done; but I can't really comment on that aspect since I never advertised myself as a sci-fi expert. There were wayyyyyy too many explosions and shootings. I sometimes got the feeling the writers added all these when they needed time to fill since most of these scenes seemed pointless. The only redeeming quality of this movie was it's quirky plot in which the viewer couldn't help but be confused whether to route for the "good guy" or the "bad guy," since the "bad guy" (in terms of the guy who was the rebel of society) actually had the right idea. Other than that, there were way too many explosions and shootings. Almost to the point that it was sickening. But like a former poster on here said, "Hologram Man" may actually be worth looking at ... just to see what society should "not" be. If society ever got this bad, I wouldn't want to be in it.

I've come late to the party when it comes to PM Entertainment, an independent production company of whom I'd heard nothing up until a couple of weeks ago. Then as (bad) luck would have it, in rapid succession I've seen a couple of their mid - late 90's features: first The Silencers and now Hologram Man. Suffice to say PM specialised in producing a distinctive line of low-to-medium budget, low brow films mostly targeted for the home-video market.

Hologram Man written by one of the co - leads Evan Lurie, is a fairly typical example of the PM fare, distinctive on this occasion, only in its arguably better than normal support cast and in its complete ripping off of the ideas behind the Sly Stallone/Wesley Snipes vehicle Demolition Man, which had come on to the market shortly beforehand. And let me be clear here, I'm not suggesting for a moment that Demolition Man achieves lofty benchmarks in cinematic quality, because it doesn't. Clearly though PM through Hologram Man, is prepared to pay multiple and obvious homages to its better - known predecessor. But from my limited experience, I'd be suggesting that this is what PM typically do. Take a random, multi - faceted grab-bag of ideas from other commercially successful movies, smash them violently and haphazardly together with endless shoot - outs and repetitive "action scenes", combined with an inexpensive cast of limited acting talent and release to an unsuspecting public.

I have to admit that the casting of Hologram Man may be of marginally better quality this time around, with well known names such as William Sanderson, John Amos, Michael Nouri and Alex Cord on the undercard. But ... oh dear! ... the lines they have to speak.

Look I will admit, if you're a punter drawn to plentiful explosions and gunfire (PM staples), Hologram Man may keep you amused. I have to admit for me, this was a 100 minute film that felt twice as long. I won't bother trying to summarise the plot, the guts of which appeared to have been sketched out on a cigarette paper. Let's just say, there may be plenty of unintended laughter when observing the enormous body count and urban damage in films such as this. Realism is not one of this wannabe science - fiction flick's strong points. I think Hologram Man hopefully signifies the last of my personal involvements with PM entertainments.

Yet another D grade turkey masquerading as Science Fiction. Don't watch this if you have your brain in an active mode.

Wooden acting, a lame script, overdone violence (a body count that puts Arny and Sly to shame!) including scenes where cops behind objects die while bad guys standing in the open live combine to make this turkey one that should end a few careers.

Give it a big miss.