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SYNOPSIS:
Once the toast of the city, Liam Case is now a forgotten man,
a hero whose fame has passed him by. Hoping to restore his
former glory, he attempts to foil an armed robbery but winds
up shot instead. Recovering from his wounds, Liam swears vengeance
and begins a hunt of his own, leading to a shocking climax
that proves the old adage: heroes are made not born.
MOVIE
REVIEW
How far would you go to pursue after the girl you
love?
The
above seems like a message send across by the screenwriters.
In “Hero Wanted”, Cuba Gooding Jr plays Liam Chase,
a man tormented by the death of his wife and unborn child
until a heroic act puts him back to the ground. As silly as
it sounds, Liam knew the only way to win the heart of a beautiful
bank teller whom he set eyes on at the grave yard is to pull
off another heroic stunt but things went far awry, in a way
Liam never would have expected.
The
so-called twist happened around at the one hour mark, I shall
not delve further in case I ruined your viewing enjoyment.
However be prepared for constant flashbacks and fast editing
throughout, techniques that are flashy in style but do no
credentials to the storytelling.
Our
leading man, Academy Award Winner Cuba Cooding Jr seems like
he is due to join the stable of actors liked Van Damme, Steven
Seagal, Wesley Snipes as he frequents the STD (not what you
are thinking, stands for Straight to DVD) Club. At least he
puts in a rousing performance here rather than the painful
“Daddy Day Camp”. Character actor Ray Liotta turns
in an appearance as foul-mouthed detective Terry Subcott,
a role that Liotta can churned out while sleepwalking. Interestingly,
the group of bad guys is far more convincing portrayed with
people like Tommy Flannagan (Gladiator) and Kim Coates (Black
Hawk Down) on board.
Director
Brian Smrz who serves as 2nd Unit director and Stunt coordinator
on movies such as “Mission Impossible II” and
“Minority Report” has little to offer here in
terms of pumping adrenalin, aside from plenty of gunshots
and two violent acts of fist fights with cameras swirling
wilder than a coaster ride, “Hero Wanted” has
more to do with Liam’s personal struggle and self-redemption.
You
might snicker at the whole purpose of Liam’s intention
in the first place but given the B movie’s concept and
tight production budget, “Hero Wanted” makes a
good substitution over those boring programmes on TV.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
A commentary track with Cuba Gooding Jr, Director
Brian Smrz and Co-writer Chad Law is included. Everyone on
board has something nice, interesting to say. There are plenty
of trailers on upcoming Sony titles like "88 Minutes",
"Southland Tales", "Revolver", 13 of them
in all and a promo Blu-ray reel.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
This
Code 3 DVD is presented in widescreen 1.85 with a 5.1 surround
soundtrack. Visual doesn’t appear to be the best in
clarity with slight grainy spots. The soundtrack serves best
during those gun firing sequences. Clarity of dialogue is
not a problem.
MOVIE
RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
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