Hollow Point

And I am back. Yes I have been delinquent in my writing. I am currently assisting my folks because they can use the help. I won't go into detail due to that being personal and not really relevant for this blog. Today's movie hails from the forgotten time of 1996.   Why, some of you weren't even born yet. For those my age or a tad younger, yeah you were a teenager. Our movie is brought to us by NU Image a.k.a. Millennium Films (Homefront, Rambo, Leatherface and The Expendables) and our director Sidney J. Furie (Swingers' Paradise, Lady Sings the Blues, Iron Eagle, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Iron Eagle II and The Taking of Beverly Hills) has managed multiple genres under his belt. So let's see some low budget, shoot 'em up action with some punchy dialogue and more than a handful of cars exploding. This is Hollowpoint.

So you don't remember me from Kull the Conqueror?

Shocking we have alternative titles Rysk Roulette and Lethal Point. Merging former rivalries of the Chinese, Italians and Russian mafias under one organization, Investment banker/gangster Thomas Livingston (John Lithgow of Terms of Endearment, Footloose, 2010: The Year We Made Contact, Cliffhanger, 3^rd Rock from the Sun, Dexter and Rise of the Planet of the Apes) has the DEA and FBI up his proverbial butt having one last major payday for his esteemed colleagues and that is all that is viable. He has devised a plan to assist his partners in their further criminal activities and keep them in money until the end of their days.

Breathing down his neck, FBI agent Diane Norwood (Tia Carrere of Zombie Nightmare,Wayne's World, True Lies, Merlin: The Return, Relic Hunter, Lilo & Stitch, Duck Dodgers and In Plain Sight), headstrong, determined and sadly low on the FBI food chain has been undercover as a means to get Livingston. The fiasco ensued and created a mass shootout with FBI and Russian mob that frankly should have destroyed a church. Seriously, it had to be close to 300 to 400 rounds dispatched between the two factions.  If this was a first person shooter MMORPG, these weapons were on infinite ammo.

Tia's hotness causes guns to blur.

With her assignment completely botched, Diane has to go back to square one. The head of the Russian Mob, Krezinsky (David Hemblen of Brainscan, Tommy Boy, Rollerball, X-Men animated series, A Nero Wolfe Mystery and Where the Truth Lies) demands blood and Livingston offers an olive branch of one of Diane's friends with the work to be done by an independent contractor Lawson (Donald Sutherland of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, M.A.S.H., JFK, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Punch, The Puppet Masters, Virus, Instinct, Panic and The Hunger Games), a freelance assassin with flair. 

Dr. Dick Solomon is not amused

With that in mind, Diane encounters DEA Max Parrish (Thomas Ian Griffith of The Karate Kid Part III, Excessive Force, Vampires, xXx, One Tree Hill, The Pirate's Curse, Cold Case and The Kidnapping) who knows about Livingston's cash and knows whoever finds the scratch gives it directly to his or her agency due to forced seizure. Now with the combined mobs feeling unease, Max and Diane are trying to deal with them, face their superiors, find the money and try to not kill each other with a shaky alliance. By the way, the cops response time in this flick is insane. They really book from location to location, it was a bit staggering.

Okay let me just point out, I enjoy the hell out of this movie. With the ridiculous amount of violence, explosions and one liners for our heroes and villains; this is a fun ride. Think of this as a live-action anime that is just nuts. I had so much fun with it.

All these parlors, I just want a therapeutic massage.