Hardwired (2009)

I love this movie so much

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

May 29 at 8:25pm · Instagram · The first IMDb review to pop up when you look up Hardwired has the log line "wtf?", which just about sums up the movie. It's straight up cow dung, a stunningly bad attempt to emulate everything from Blade Runner to Minority Report, failing in all imaginable ways. It does, however, possess a few deranged qualities which are worth a look purely for your own mirth and amusement. Let's start with Val Kilmer's hairdo. He sports a getup that looks as if someone threw the head of a mop into a wheat thresher, put it on his head and tried to style it like an emo anime character. It's baffling, shocking and the hairpiece gives a better performance than the former Bruce Wayne sitting beneath it. Now,here's the curious thing: on the DVD cover, Kilmer has a garden variety haircut, with no trace of the horror to come once you hit play. This makes not a bit of sense to me; if I were the filmmaker and it was my movie and I'd chosen that epic Goku hairdo for Kilmer, let alone get him to agree to it, I'd advertise it loud and proud, and put his image like nine different times all over the cover art. It's ironic that a film about excessive commercialism is guilty of false advertising, but there you have it. Anywho, Kilmer and the hair play Virgil Killiger, a whacky PR manager of a mega corporation whose main revenue comes from serial advertising, in a half assed future where society has reached the oft imagined 1984 dystopia. He's tasked with harassing Luke Gibson (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a man who owes a heavy debt to the company due to their products saving his life following an accident. Only problem is, it doesn't end there. The corporation gets greedy and tries to insinuate itself into every aspect of people's lives. Gooding bands together with a group of cyberpunk hackers led by Michael Ironside, and together attempt to bring down the company once and for all. It's al big dumb dumb of a flick that doesn't even put a modicum of effort in most of the time. Lance Henriksen fans beware: despite a credit, he's not even in the thing, except for a single recycled photograph which sets the film up for sequels that I will bet my left testicle will never get made.

I watched the movie on 160 FUSE cable TV may 2016 and I actually enjoyed the movie. It has action, drama, tragedy and more. It is not of course Gooding's best work, but he does justice to the material. I am 3/4 of the way through the movie as I am writing review so do not have the ending but I am sure Cuba will exact his revenge for his loss of his wife, child and memory. He knows his story but not sure if he has actual memories of it yet. I am just now seeing the history of the assassin sent after Gooding and his personal reasons beyond his contract to kill Gooding, assassin blames him for his wifes death from what I understand so far. Not sure of the why or how yet.

Okay, so the once great Val Kilmer looks a little goofy and yeah, Cuba Gooding Jr. has won Oscars for MUCH better. But people, this is Science Fiction for God's sake! Just exactly WHEN was the last time you saw a decent Sci Fi film, hmmm...? How about the tons of drivel cranked out by the Sci Fi channel? I truly think that this movie has some very good ideas in it. The opening scenes showing all the corporate advertising ALONE give this film a strong '5' to start with. A VERY clever idea in my opinion. I absolutely frigg'n LOVED the soundtrack; now THAT is a bloody great soundtrack!!! And technically (which is usually FAR more important in Sci Fi films) I thought that they were pretty sharp with the visuals and the editing, which gave it a fairly glossy look. With probably about 1% of the budget, I actually got flashes that reminded me strongly of 'ENEMY OF THE STATE' Not a bad accomplishment, considering...Remember too, the BEST Science Fiction is based upon GOOD ideas; and the idea for this one is indeed quite intriguing. There have been several films made on this premise where in the near future corporations will own and control EVERYTHING (the introductory statement at the beginning of the movie is a nice touch) So yeah, the movie was somewhat constrained by it's budget. But, I honestly thought that they accomplished a lot with what they had and were able to create a pretty good looking film and, surprisingly, were able to keep the Cheeeeez factor fairly low. Let's not forget too that the movie DOES indeed have Val Kilmer and Cuba Gooding Jr., which is a HELL of a lot more than most low budget Science Fiction films have these days! Bottom line (and I really DO like saying 'Bottom'!) If you really appreciate a quality Science Fiction concept and you take the time to notice and enjoy all the nice visual and creative touches, you really should enjoy this film...

In a future world dominated by the corporations, Luke Gibson is driving his beloved pregnant wife Veronica to her work on the day of his birthday; out of the blue, a truck hits their car. Luke's medical insurance is expired and he is doomed to die; however, the executive of the Hope Corporation Virgil proposes Luke's sister to submit him to an experimental surgery with the implant of a chip in his brain. Luke awakes and soon he discovers that he has visions and he is the Subject 373 of a secret project. He is helped by a team of hackers formed by Keyboard that became paraplegic after being shot by a henchman of the Hope Corporation; his father Hal; Punk Blue; and Punk Red. Luke tries to recover his memories and discover the objective of the mysterious project...the film tries hard to be like blade-runner, Minority report, I robot, but fails on every account. it never gets interested and i feel Goodings pain every time i saw the guy selling the watch, i wanted to turn off.the script is bad and i wonder what gooding and Kilmer were thinking when they signed on? gooding says in the making it was the right time for a film like this, because of the current economic climate....thinking about the paycheck then?and as for Kilmer? pantomime villain at best, he just stands there and spouts out nonsense like the architect did, but with Nicolas Cage hair.Please don't bother, this is trash, and the effects are as bad as the DVD cover.