Hero Wanted DVD Review

Academy Award Winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire, As Good As It Gets) plays two time local hero, Liam Case, a man whose instinct to react to a situation has nearly killed him more than once. Liam is seriously wounded when he tries to help a friend, bank teller Kayla McQueen (Malibu’s Most Wanted, Blonde Ambition) during a botched bank robbery.

After recovering, Liam begins to hunt down the four men involved, with intentions on killing them. Liam kills a low down thug named Lynch McGraw (Steven Koslowski, Holes, Thirteen), turning him into a wanted man by both the police and fellow bank robbers. Now Lynch’s brother Skinner (Kim Coates, Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor) and his gang of ruffians including Swain (Norman Reedus, Boondock Saints, Blade 2) and Derek (Tommy Flannagan, Braveheart, The Game) are ready to do whatever it takes to exact their revenge.

Investigating the murder of Lynch is Detective Terry Subcott (Ray Liotta, Goodfellas, NARC), an over-worked, bitter policeman who is never quite off the job.

As the story unfolds, it begins to seem as if Liam had a bit more to do with the bank robbery than it originally looked. It turns out that he commissioned Swaim to rob the bank in an attempt to look the hero one more time, in order to help him talk to Kayla, the girl he had become obsessed with.

Hero Wanted marks the directorial debut of stunt man Brian Smrz and it may explain a great deal of the film. Hero Wanted is an action packed, well-choreographed series of stunts with a movie hidden in there. Despite its rather meager budget, a mere 6 million dollars, Hero Wanted plays like a film with a budget 20 times larger. It is well produced and well shot with spectacular action sequences. It is almost a tragedy that this film was not released into theater. With its cast of characters and intense action sequences, it could have done very well provided it had a decent trailer edit and poster. More importantly, a theatrical release would help Brian Smrz prove to the world that he can turn a profit off of a film. Move over Michael Bay and J.J. Abrams, and expect to see great things from this director.

Despite its B-movie cover and concept, Hero Wanted ended up being an okay film. It is a little predictable and schmaltzy at times, but overall it is a decent film. There are several areas of criticism, including a kind of cheesy narration about redemption and intention from the Liam character, and a handful of bad edits that obviously and unintentionally repeat action already seen in a different angle.

Hero Wanted is presented in widescreen with a 5.1 stereo surround soundtrack. The DVD release includes a feature length commentary with director Brian Smrz, co-writer Chad Law and star Cuba Gooding Jr. in the special features section. The DVD also features a digital copy of the film which can be loaded onto a PC or Sony PSP or Playstation 3. Unfortunately, Macintosh users cannot access the digital copy at this time, nor is it compatible with the Apple iPod.