Hologram Man

I've come late to the party when it comes to PM Entertainment, an independent production company of whom I'd heard nothing up until a couple of weeks ago. Then as (bad) luck would have it, in rapid succession I've seen a couple of their mid - late 90's features: first The Silencers and now Hologram Man. Suffice to say PM specialised in producing a distinctive line of low-to-medium budget, low brow films mostly targeted for the home-video market.

Hologram Man written by one of the co - leads Evan Lurie, is a fairly typical example of the PM fare, distinctive on this occasion, only in its arguably better than normal support cast and in its complete ripping off of the ideas behind the Sly Stallone/Wesley Snipes vehicle Demolition Man, which had come on to the market shortly beforehand. And let me be clear here, I'm not suggesting for a moment that Demolition Man achieves lofty benchmarks in cinematic quality, because it doesn't. Clearly though PM through Hologram Man, is prepared to pay multiple and obvious homages to its better - known predecessor. But from my limited experience, I'd be suggesting that this is what PM typically do. Take a random, multi - faceted grab-bag of ideas from other commercially successful movies, smash them violently and haphazardly together with endless shoot - outs and repetitive "action scenes", combined with an inexpensive cast of limited acting talent and release to an unsuspecting public.

I have to admit that the casting of Hologram Man may be of marginally better quality this time around, with well known names such as William Sanderson, John Amos, Michael Nouri and Alex Cord on the undercard. But ... oh dear! ... the lines they have to speak.

Look I will admit, if you're a punter drawn to plentiful explosions and gunfire (PM staples), Hologram Man may keep you amused. I have to admit for me, this was a 100 minute film that felt twice as long. I won't bother trying to summarise the plot, the guts of which appeared to have been sketched out on a cigarette paper. Let's just say, there may be plenty of unintended laughter when observing the enormous body count and urban damage in films such as this. Realism is not one of this wannabe science - fiction flick's strong points. I think Hologram Man hopefully signifies the last of my personal involvements with PM entertainments.

"Hologram Man" is another entertaining movie from the PM Group. PM Entertainment put out the best DTV action movies out there. They are now defunct, but in the 90's they were the kings. "Hologram Man" is the straight to video version of "Virtuosity".

The plot is: Slash Gallagher (Evan Lurie) is baddest criminal around. When he kills the Governor, he gets sent to holographic statis, which means his body is discarded for a holographic one. But during his parole hearing five years later, he escapes and only one cop can bring him down: Kurt Decoda (Joe Lara).

This movie has non-stop explosions. Every car, person and building is blown up. They spared no expense on the pyrotechnics this time around. The body count is also very high, with hundreds getting killed. It makes for a fun evening. The acting is also first-rate. Evan Lurie and Joe Lara put in exciting performances. Michael Nouri, on the other hand, looks like he's reading cue cards. Overall, this is a very cool flick that's worth seeing.

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PM Entertainment was really starting to roll around this point, and they were probably thinking this was going to be their breakthrough point. They apparently had a sizable budget, great locations, and a screenplay filled with action and a huge body count.

Upon seeing the finished product, it seems something went very VERY wrong. Most of the blame can be put on the incompetent editing (the problem that you usually find on the particular PM movies that went wrong.) Often new scenes start up in what seems to be the MIDDLE of the scene - including the opening sequence! Action sequences sometimes are missing key shots, so that people or vehicles are suddenly in a new position without us seeing how they got there. If a particular action scene isn't confusingly cut like that, it's instead cut in a way that makes all the shooting and explosions boring.

Elsewhere in the movie, a few shots are sliced up and spread throughout the particular scene (in one instance, it results in someone dying, then seen miraculously alive!) And some scenes are utterly useless, like the scene where the hero goes through a virtual reality training course. Sure, the computer graphics (for the time) aren't bad, but this scene serves no purpose except for eye candy.

The rest of the movie is mostly just as forgettable. Having both a hero and a villain look and act like Lorenzo Lamas was probably not a good idea. I admit I did get a few giggles with William Sanderson cast as a computer geek. There are a few other laughs, but otherwise it's an unbelievably dull effort that seems to go on forever. The only possible explanation I can think of is that maybe the work-in-progress cut was mistakenly shipped to the video people instead of the final cut.

Yet another D grade turkey masquerading as Science Fiction. Don't watch this if you have your brain in an active mode.

Wooden acting, a lame script, overdone violence (a body count that puts Arny and Sly to shame!) including scenes where cops behind objects die while bad guys standing in the open live combine to make this turkey one that should end a few careers.

Give it a big miss.

From the beginning this film is relentless swearing, dubious shootouts, massive explosions and over the top characterisation. I liked it.

This was broadcast in UK on the Movies4men channel, there are absolutely no romantic elements to this story.

In the future a criminals are kept in cold storage and their minds reprogrammed in holographic stasis (what?). One such criminal escapes in holographic form, it is up to the man who captured him etc etc.

It is easy to see the influence of hit films of the era such as Demolition Man, T2, Robocop, The Lawnmower Man and Virtuosity.

Presumably Bruce Campbell and Lance Henrickson were busy hence their absence from this movie.

Quite why some of the other reviewers are so critical is beyond me. Did the title and synopsis indicate to them that this film would be shortlisted for the Oscars? Unlikely as it isn't about AIDS or the holocaust luvvies.

Technically the film has been quite well shot and very well edited.

The sound quality is passable but nothing special.

Overall this was quite a fun film to with an interesting enough premise, and would be good to watch with friends with a few beers