Hellbinders (2009)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Here I am, sitting in front of my computer, watching this film. I expected an awesome film of gun play, sword fights, and just action in general. what I got instead was a mess of kool-ade red blood, amazing disappearing bullet holes, and really bad set design.1. Any time anyone gets shot, little black spurts of CG blood shoot out. and that's the end of it.2. Esteban Cueto, Cain, has a hard time making himself sound convincing. maybe it was just the script, seeing as how everyone sounded a bit weak. (Estaban looks to the side and says in a calm voice, as if no one died, "we should give them a proper burial")3.the set design is downright awful. There was one room, which I guess is a dungeon, but it just looks like some guy just bought some wallpaper that looked like bricks. cardboard (that only look like cardboard) gates to be crashed through, flickering light bulbs to look like candles,4. the religious references were numerous, and seemed like they were just trying to pad for time.5. most sound effects are either out of sync, or sounds like they pulled them out of a 1991 video game. (Estaban walks out of a room. his footsteps echo through the room, even when he doesn't step.)I find myself wondering where all the money went in this movie. I'm guessing the special effects, seeing as how there is a lot of them.all in all, the movie is terrible. I found myself laughing more than I should have, and I want my money (and that wasted time) back.

This is a great indy action flick distributed by Maverick Entertainment. You can pick up a copy 5/4/10 at your local retailers-BestBuy, Blockbuster, Walmart, Netflix,and Redbox.Max is a fast talking mercenary willing to risk everything for the almighty dollar, but he has met his match when he agrees to take on a job to terminate the devil himself. With the help of an elite assassin and the last remaining member of the Knights Templar, Max prepares for battle. But will the team even stand a chance against the mightiest demon they all have ever faced? Credits for actors in Hellbinders: Ray Park- Nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award and a MTV Movie Award for his role in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Starred in "Heroes," G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, X-Men, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Johnny Yong Bosch - "Three Delivery," "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers," "Paradise Kiss" Esteban Cueto - Ultimate Champion, Delta Farce, Collateral Damage Richard Cetrone -Nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his stunt work on Iron Man and 300. Has done stunt work on: The Scorpion King, Iron Man, 300, Underworld, Mr. & Mrs. Smith Ingrid Sonray - Sugar Valentine, Short Fuse Randy Hall- Nominated for a World Stunt Award for his stunt work on Taxi and The Glass House. Has done stunt work on: Mission: Impossible III, Paycheck, The Italian Job, Se7en, Taxi, The Glass House*Sponsored Post

Hellbinders is set in the City of Angels as ruthless killer for hire Max (Ray Park) is hired by some local corrupt cops to take down an evil cult,after waving a load of drug money in his face Max agrees & together with his team Carmen (Ingrid Sonray) & George (Randy Hall) sets out to complete his mission. However Max is in it for the money & before he tries to kill the cult he sells them an ancient book he stole for them, as the bullets fly both Carmen & George are possessed by demons known as Oni controlled by a demon called Leigon as the body hop from human to human. Leigon's plan is to open a doorway to hell to free millions of other demons with which to take over the world & Max is right in the thick of it. Along with a centuries old Knights Templar called Cain (Esteban Cueto) & a Japanese assassin called Ryu (Johnny Yong Bosch) the only hope for the world are the three unlikely allies...During the opening credits for Hellbinders (which start at around the ten minute mark after a long set-up) there are three director's listed each divided into sections, the first credits is for 'The Story of Max' directed by Hrio Coda, next is 'The Story of Ryu' directed by David Wald & finally 'The Story of Cain' directed by Mitch Gould although strangely the film itself isn't split up into three sections like the credits suggest & while there are three distinct character's here they all interact with each other constantly so I assume each directed was given his own character which makes no sense to me but there you go. The film itself isn't very good, it's a fantasy comic book style action film with plenty of martial arts & shoot-outs as three mismatched hero's come up against the forces of hell, it really isn't as good as it sounds. The plot has too much religious mysticism that just made my eyes glaze over with talk of ancient demons, warrior clans & destiny. Also while we see all these supernatural things happening & evil demons that are supposed to threaten the entire world the film never show's us anything normal, it never show's us that real world to put whats happening in context & give it some gravity or relevance. At 87 minutes long it felt longer, the action scenes are quite static & forgettable while the plot didn't grab me. Set in a fictional city this actually felt a lot like Blade (1998) with some superhero doing battle against the forces of evil but obviously nowhere near as good.The film tries hard to feel like a graphic novel or a comic book with lots of scenes beginning in frames with boxes of writing setting the scene, it happens a lot & starts to become irritating after a while. The gore & violence isn't anything special, there's a cut off arm, a couple of bloody sword wounds & lots of kicking, punching, shooting & sword fighting but it's nothing you haven't seen before & it really isn't that impressive. Most of the fights takes place withing a couple of rooms as the budget probably didn't stretch to sets. The CGI effects are OK but CGI blood never looks convincing.The IMDb says Hellbinders had a budget of about $1,300,000 which is a lot of money, I actually find it hard to believe that it did cost that much & if it did where did the money go? The main actor here is Ray Park who is better known as Darth Maul from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) while his co-star Johnny Yong Bosch is better known for his starring role in the various Power rangers series back in the mid to late 90's.Hellbinders is a pretty average comic book martial arts horror about demonic possession, the end of the world & various people who have to work together to stop it. While not a terrible film I would be hard pushed to describe it as anything more than average.

It just came out on DVD in Germany and I rented this, not knowing what I should expect. As stated many times before, I don't actually read, what the movies I watch are about. I like to be surprised like that. Sometimes that can go awfully wrong, but this little movie (budget just over a million, which is really peanuts in the action genre these days) was a hit! Directed by three men, who are actually more into stunts, than directing, this really is a fun little movie. And while other movies try hard to be funny, this actually has the actors that can pull that off. Not that every joke hits its target, but even those who miss are pretty nice. With Derek Mears in a small role (the new Jason in Friday 13th) and quite a few great action scenes, it's all surrounded by a good enough story to back that all up.Not pitch-perfect, but if you have a heart for low budget movies, that are worth your while (and money), then you should definitely give this a chance! :o)