Action Addicts Network

Hellfire is the latest feature film from the mind of Isaac Florentine. Written by Richard Lowry and starring a veritable who’s who of action stars. Leading the film, we have Stephen Lang who most recently was receiving a lot of love for his role in Sisu 2: Road to Revenge. Here though Stephen plays a drifter who wanders into a small town with a bunch of problems, problems that need someone with a very particular set of skills to help solve them. As you might guess, Stephen Lang’s ‘man with no name’ is that problem solver.

So, if you’re thinking that you’ve heard this story before you aren’t wrong, Isaac Florentine wanted to create an homage to the movies of yesteryear that he enjoyed, such as Pale Rider or High Plains Drifter. For my money though, it also feels like it takes heavy inspiration from First Blood and Roadhouse, since the film is set in 1988 that is unlikely to be accidental. 

As for why the film is set then, Isaac himself stated that:
“I chose 1988 as the setting because it marks the final moment before the modern world fully arrived—before the internet, home computers, and cell phones collapsed distances and dissolved isolation. In that pre-digital pocket of time, a small, remote town could still exist as its own self-contained cosmos, bound by secrets, superstition, and the slow burn of frontier justice. Hellfire lives in that space, where the mythic and the real can still blur.”

Every hero needs a villain and, in this movie, we have multiple characters taking the baton at various points. First and foremost, we have Harvey Keitel’s ‘Jeremiah’ as the kingpin of this small town and national drug smuggling empire. He is joined by his right-hand man ‘Zeke’ played by Johnny Yong Bosch and his son ‘Clyde’ played by Michael Sirow who wishes he was his fathers right hand man. Along for the ride we also have Dolph Lundgrens ‘Sheriff Wiley’ who tries, very politely, to run Lang out of town within five minutes of meeting the man. Yes, the Sheriff is corrupt, go figure.

Scottie Thompson’s ‘Lena’ is the anchor of this story and it’s when our nameless man starts doing work in her father’s bar that the movie makes its intentions clear. Clyde wants what he can’t have and is drunk on power and inflated ego. Her father is wheelchair bound and is struggling to keep the lights on never mind deal with the local gangsters who visit them every day. This leads to a boiling point where the old man doing odd jobs to help fix the place proves he’s better at violence than they are.

Michael Sirow does a great job as Clyde, he is not sympathetic, but they do a great job at subtly showing you how truly broken he is inside. With one great scene between Jeremiah and Clyde even demonstrating just how different the two men are. Jeremiah is a monster but it’s from a place of cold callous logic. Clyde lets his emotions run the show far too often because of his life of horrors and makes decisions and plans that can’t stand up to even the briefest brush with reality.

That is why Zeke is still very much in charge, a fact that leads to more than one tense exchange with Clyde, but everyone in the town fears him and for good reason. Earlier I said this film has a touch of Roadhouse in it and Zeke is the clearest nod to it. Not only does he come across as a less insane Jimmy (Marshall Teague), but he is also clearly the guy who puts the bodies in the ground. Johnny’s portrayal of Zeke is exactly the kind of calm dependable ‘final boss’ that used to be a lot more common in these sorts of movies. I wish he had been given more screen time as one scene that takes place in a bar took me by surprise, Clyde tries to intimidate Zeke in front of all the men, and it doesn’t go well for Clyde despite the fact Zeke disarms himself and doesn’t throw a single punch.

Speaking of throwing punches, what’s the action like in this action film I hear you ask? What’s there is done pretty good but those expecting a breakneck, full throttle martial art Isaac Florentine film may need to adjust expectations accordingly. The movie is in no rush to get to the ass kicking and takes its time setting up the stakes and the players first. There are some moments to tease you, but when it does kick off, we get car chases, shoot outs and a huge brutal final fight. One thing I noticed and was impressed by was the variety in the locations, the tense cat and mouse shoot out sequence takes place in a graffiti covered dilapidated building that I assume used to be some kind of mill or factory. While that might sound like standard affair the actual location is anything but, allowing for bright colours and great juxtaposition with the violence unfolding.

Lang is no stranger to handling firearms or playing a grizzled veteran and it serves him well here. We even get some time for a PTSD flashback dream to Vietnam. The drifter is no stranger to combat or violence and one of the more interesting choices was how quickly he decides to get involved and be a nuisance for those in charge. This goes hand in hand with some heavy religious overtones throughout the film, I mean he is fighting Jeremiah and Ezekiel after all.

The film also isn’t afraid to get dark. There are a couple of scenes I won’t spoil here but they caught me off guard at how mean spirited it suddenly got. Sure, people had already been shot, killed or maimed but the villains of this film truly earn that title with a callous approach to life that a lot of movies would do off screen not front and centre.

The final fight of the movie is naturally between Stephen Land and Johnny Yong Bosch, a sequence I must draw attention too for a few different reasons. First, it’s the only real proper martial art sequence in the movie that doesn’t end after a few seconds. Second, this entire end sequence was choreographed by Johnny himself. He is credited as fight choreographer for the whole film, but this scene is truly where he gets to shine. I’ve also seen him say at a panel that he also got to direct a decent chunk of the action here due to time constraints. This fight can be broken down into 3 different sections and it’s a textbook example of how to show of the skills of the fighter, give each one a moment to shine and vary the locations a bit so that the audience doesn’t get bored. It’s bloody, brutal and I wish there had been more of it sprinkled throughout.

Overall, this is a great homage to those older movies. Sadly, Dolph doesn’t get to do a whole lot and there is so much setup at the start of the film that it does feel a bit uneven in both action and tone but even with that said I think everyone gives as much as they can with what they get to work with. There are also breadcrumbs littered throughout the narrative that suggests more is at work here than a simple drifter but that’s up to you how much you read into it. In short, it’s worth it just for those old familiar vibes told through a new lens.

The movie hits digital and on demand on the 17th February and is distributed by Saban Films