ewingmusic

I was lucky enough to attend the premiere of this new film in Bangkok on the big screen.

I loved the look and feel of Hellhound.

We get to see a lot of Bangkok and there were some really fantastic shots - especially the rooftop fight scene.

Lead actor was great and overall the acting quality was pretty good for this level of movie in terms of budget.

I did feel that the narrative could have been a bit clearer, and perhaps the lead character could have been fleshed out a bit more. At times it seemed he disappeared from the narrative and his sidekick had more on screen time than him.

The photography was excellent and the action scenes were very well shot - some great camera tricks in some moments. We could have had more action scenes - this would be my main takeaway - I almost wanted it to have been more of a smash em up movie - and go all in with it! However - it was a good effort from all involved.

I'm not sure why it was called HellHound - perhaps that aspect could havebeen explored a bit more - I did get the connection to it through some of the dialogue, but I dont think it was explored enough.

There was humour but perhaps not enough.... Well done all involved.

Its not really a good movie because we've seen it ALL before. Literally hundreds of times. And I have NO idea why they cast Kevin Hart in this - he didn't play Kevin Hart and was increibly dull.. There are THOUSANDS Of hungry and capable young black actors who should have got that role, and if he wasn't going to bring his humour and style to the role, he should have declined it and freed up the opportunity to someone more deserving. If he's trying to re-invent himself as some kind of action hero - why on earth bother??! Challenge yourself as an actor in a better and more demanding role!

Im struggling to work out who the target demographic is for this film. The charcaters are all in their 30's and yet the plot is written for 15 year olds. Simply put - this was a waste of money. Jean Reno shouldn't have been in the film - he was rubbish and didnt do anything and when he did do something he phoned it in with the conviction of a 60 year old postman who has done the same delivery route for the last 40 years. The lead actress -Gugu Mbatha-Raw - is actually 40 now - and it shows. Shes got a fantastic figure - but she's simply not that hot. In fact - this is the weird thing about the film - the casting is all over the shop. You've got tons of great heavyweight actors - but a lot of them are really underbaked. We have nearly THREE antagonists - its so confusing,. The film simply cannot work out what it is or what it wants to be. It wants to be a heist - and it does achieve some sense of tension but its so protracted that by the time we get to the juicy bit - we dont actually see the heist take place!!

Out of 5 stars - Id give it 2.