REVIEW: The Hollow Point (2016)

Run Time: 98 Mins
Rated: R
What To Expect: A film with realistic and confident violence, but a wasted cast

I’m actually kind of sad over what came out of this movie.  It’s a film with a good score, meticulous realist violence and a cast that includes Ian McShane, John Leguizamo and Jim Belushi… now there’s a name we don’t see too often these days anymore, Jim Belushi.  But, it kind of meanders back and forth with no real story, which kind of drains willpower for a movie that heads towards 100 minutes.

The film opens with two hick cousins smuggling armour piercing ammunition across the Mexican border out of America to the Cartel, who are running short.  The Cartel does not like waiting around and expects its smugglers to be punctual, so when whiskey slugging killer Ian McShane (he’s still the Sheriff, despite this description) interrupts a delivery by shooting down one pissant at the side of the road, it triggers a quagmire of violence and retribution, with Patrick Wilson playing McShane’s colleague on the hunt of undercover Sicario John Leguizamo, who is prone to chopping off limbs and generally being an evil bastard.

This movie gets somewhat lethargic and even boring towards the second half.  I think the problem is that there are too many characters — for every male character it seems there has to be a female character tacked on, just because. And so begins a circulation of character relations that become meaningless and tedious.  Patrick Wilson, the lead actor, seems to just wander about and get involved in occasional bouts of nasty violence and his relation with one female is literally a waste of time.

My favourite things about this otherwise pointless modern western are Ian McShane and Jim Belushi (listed as James Belushi here).  Great actors, man!  Really into their roles and capable of elevating crap screenwriting with a bit of piss and vinegar, the latter in particular plays an excellent sleazy car salesman.  The other good thing about this show is that it fully uses its ‘R’ rating, one thing the director gets right is violence and it comes at you totally at random, which kind of unseats you out of the boredom every now and again.

Pity though, I wouldn’t recommend this movie and I’d hoped for better given the cast and premise.  It’s no Cold in July or No Country for Old Men, that’s for sure.  Watch those movies instead.