Hollow Point

The revenge fantasy subgenre continues with this low budget, but surprisingly well cast direct to video actioner that manages to rip off...sorry "homage" the original 'Death Wish' by way of a little 'Magnum Force' being thrown in for good measure. Y'know, just to mix things up.When high school teacher Nolan Cooray (Dilan Jay) returns home to discover that his wife and child have been murdered by career criminal Trigger (Jay Mohr), his life takes a downward turn. Fuelled by revenge, Nolan attempts to take down the crimelord, but only gets thrown into prison for his troubles - pushing our hero even further as this once peaceful man must connect to his inner monster and fight all and sundry in order to stay alive... Across town, his antics have piqued the interest of a clandestine vigilante group led by Hank Carmac (Luke Goss), his partner Damian (Michael Paré) and Amanda (JuJu Chan) who enrol Nolan into their gang who by night take down villains there way, without the aid of law enforcement - finally promising him the head of Trigger... no matter the personal cost.Where the original 'Death Wish' dealt with vigilantism as a backdrop to the leads' personal and political belief, this new movie attempts to walk alongside those same themes but sadly the budget fail to make it anything more than an inferior clone. Chad and Evan Law are great action writers (between them providing screenplay's for '6 Bullets', 'Hero Wanted' and 'One in the Chamber') but here the recycled nature of the material is further rendered immaterial by lacklustre production values, generic direction from 'Asian Connection' helmer Daniel Zirilli and average action sequences that fail to engage. Sure, co-leads' Luke Goss and Michael Paré are their usual commanding selves - but all they are asked to do is punch someone or drop an F bomb every minute, which decidedly begins to grate come the thirty minute mark. Main lead Dilan Jay also seems out of sorts. Hey, he's good and I could easily see him in another action flick, but here his clean cut everyman schtick just doesn't cut it and I was hoping for more depth from someone who had lost so much. I never got to feel his pain and when the inevitable redemption comes - its hardly earned. Points where Nolan’s grief could be explored are jettisoned in favour of more swearing and numbskull prison fights. Even a moment where Goss drops Nolan off at home following his release from prison is swiftly cut away. I guess I was expecting a scene with Nolan fully realising the gravity of his now empty home for the first time with all the pain that cascades from that. Yet, nothing. Nada. Thankfully, Jay Mohr plays his villain role with ghoulish relish - echoing a young Christoper Walken with a suitably disconnected demeanour. He's pretty good. The rest of the cast are very professional (as are the leads) but sadly the movie feels very ho hum and at no point does it ignite into something much more...Dazzler Media’s UK DVD release sports a very strong transfer with vibrant audio yet no extra special features. All in all, this one is potentially worth a one shot watch but don’t go in expecting anything revelatory. All it has on its mind is another flick where bad people do bad things, punctuated by less bad people doing badder things to them - yet without any real heart or soul.

If your a Luke Goss fan youll love this movie i know i did x

It was ok could have wrote it better myself

For action no probs but the actor's ain't good actors...6/10

Slow to start but enjoyed it