Hardwired (2009)

Very disappointed :(

not horrible nor great

A Brilliant Conflict

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Ploughing the same furrow as conspiracy-style futuristic sci-fi thrillers as Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT, HARDWIRED is a science fiction film on a budget. Starring the less-than-stellar Cuba Gooding Jr. as an ordinary guy who almost dies in a car accident and is brought back to life thanks to the intervention of a sinister commercial organisation, this is slightly disappointing and intriguing in equal measure.The most interesting part of the production are the sly digs at numerous subject matters, including the failings of the American healthcare system and the increasingly desperate efforts of modern-day advertisers. The sci-fi and action tropes are less successful, with a few cheesy CGI effects thrown into the mix, but the script is a little more intelligent than is the usual for the B-movie genre.HARDWIRED also boasts a fine supporting role for the criminally underrated Michael Ironside, who gets the opportunity to sink his teeth into a decent character part for a change after years spent whiling away his time in Z-grade disaster flicks. There's also a good performance from the up-and-coming Tatiana Maslany, although the less said about Val Kilmer's bad guy the better; Kilmer is stiffer than a board here and his acting often painful.Still, this is a film which turns out slightly better than I had expected, and the various mind-melding mind-control stuff is handled in such a way that's not original, but nevertheless entertaining. HARDWIRED is certainly no classic, but an efficient enough timewaster.

...but it's not great either. The film has a budget, some nice action sequences, decent special effects and some good actors actually doing what they are paid to do. Oh, and Val Kilmer in a silly wig. Cuba Gooding Jr can act and does give his usual decent performance, despite the films flaws. Val Kilmer's scenes were obviously filmed in a day or two of shooting, hence the silly wig and the fact you only ever see him on a video screen or in the same set. Also looks like his lines were being read off a board or he had just read them for the first time 2mins before saying them.Still the film did have some entertainment value, its not an awful film as other reviewers who voted it 1 have suggested, its just not a good film. It does have some pacing issues, sometimes there is too much explaining going on when anyone with sense can see what's going on, its not brain surgery (well it is in some parts!). It feels like a pilot for a TV series, especially the speech at the end and without giving too much away Lance Henriksen's face on the screen as the 'Mr Hope' of hope industry (you'll see what I mean if you watch it). If there is nothing else on, or you have watched most of the other recent releases then this will pass some time.

I didn't think the movie "Hardwired" was as bad as a 4. But it isn't the greatest either. Gooding's character Luke is played well as a distraught man trying to figure out what has happened to him and who is responsible. He really is the best part of the movie. On the other hand, Kilmer is always good for a crazy man, unfortunately I think Kilmer's character is strongly underplayed in this movie. Is he a crazy person? Or is he just a middle man with no heart? I don't know. I would of enjoyed it had he played with more psychotic emotion. The man responsible for Hope Corp. might as well been Kilmer's character. Did they actually pay the guy who was Mr. Hope? For the person responsible for the bases of this movie, he really didn't do much. I also don't know if it was a selling ploy, but why is Val Kilmer's hair perfect on the cover picture? It is far from perfect in the movie.Conclusion: I enjoyed it as a relaxing Saturday, nothing to do, movie.

Here we have a movie made for TV. It's cheap, it's boring, and it's bad. Not even the good actors here can make it any good. In fact, they seem to be acting bad themselves! I actually didn't have the will to watch the whole thing in one go, and had to leave half of it for next day. I hate to be interrupted when watching a movie, so you can imagine how terrible this piece is. As for the cyberpunk part... Let's see... You know when you have these consoles full of bright lights and monitors with all kind of signs that don't tell anything? When someone seems to be just pressing random keys on the keyboard while trying to look like he's doing something serious? That's Hardwired for you. I really dislike those extra buttons added to a piece of hardware to make it look more "futuristic" or having a lot of useless, meaningless characters on someone's range of vision pretending to be very "hi-tech". There's not even atmosphere here. The music doesn't suit and it doesn't give any feeling. You know what I thought when watching this? Nirvana. It's like this film is trying to be Nirvana. I love that film. It wasn't a big budget production but it got something: atmosphere. And you felt like you were actually watching a cyberpunk film, immersed in it. Hardwired is more like a bad Twilight Zone episode. The plot could have saved some of this fiasco. However, as it happens so many times, it doesn't develop enough to make the movie worth it.