Hologram Man

HOLOGRAM MAN seems to be a passion project of action regular Evan Lurie, who not only co-leads the movie but also wrote and produced it. Lurie abandoned acting right before the slump of the video market to pursue a career in art and music, but he leaves behind one of the more colorful magnum opuses you can expect to find from B-movie stars. This one is pretty weird and won't appeal to most general viewers, but it's also an adrenalized rush and one of the sounder-looking productions from the PM Entertainment library.

The story: Imprisoned in holographic state for five years, a vicious anarchist (Lurie) achieves near-immortality upon being sprung by his gang, and the only one who can bring him down is the cop who arrested him in the first place (Joe Lara).

Lead star Joe Lara is a goofy hero of yesteryear's low budget scene, and the movie features a surprisingly great cast that includes Michael Nouri, John Amos, Joseph Campanella, Alex Cord, Arabella Holzbog, Tiny Lister, Derek McGrath, William Sanderson, and Nicholas Worth, but I'd be lying if I wrote that Lurie doesn't steal the movie out from under all of them. His character – Slash Gallagher – belongs among the ranks of villains so cheesy and overblown that they become spellbinding, like THE LAST DRAGON's Sho'nuff and BATMAN & ROBIN's Mr. Freeze. Lurie shows off his aptitude for action well enough, but for once, the bulk of the strength he brings to the movie is in his presence, which he accentuates via some memorably overblown delivery and the worst braids ever seen on the head of a white man.

The movie is full of weird ideas, beginning with the notion that a person's consciousness can be extracted into digital form – a digital form that can be encased in synthetic skin, shoot electricity at people, and attack you through your computer monitor. If you can't roll with that sort of thing, don't even bother with this one, but it will give you some great times if you already know what you like. It helps that this one clearly has a decent budget behind it, and a production design that's more balanced than the B-movie norm; the world largely looks like something that could actually develop, with only hints of MAD MAX or STAR WARS influences here and there. The "message" of the movie – about the potential of improperly-harnessed technology to infringe on civil rights – feels a little out of place but is still a nice touch.

Disappointingly, the action can be lacking: the numerous shootouts are generally filmed better than the low-budget norm but get repetitious after a while, and there aren't enough fight scenes for my taste. The final showdown is an awkward green-screened thing a'la the VR brawls of EXPECT NO MERCY. The film would have earned a higher rating had it delivered in these areas, but honestly, it just misses out even as it is. Particular fans of Evan Lurie will like it, and lovers of low-grade sci-fi will also have a ball. Know yourself before you buy this, and don't hesitate for too long if you think this might be for you.

"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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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

I hope big explosions are your fancy because, like them or not, there are a LOT of them in this movie. And trust me, there are a lot more than necessary. Another thing that was blatantly wrong in this movie, as the guy before me mentioned, there is a LOT of people standing out in the open not being shot and killed, while the cops behind cars are dropping like flies. But, I soon realized that I didn't feel sorry for the cops, considering they didn't use the cars as shields for their upper torso. They would stand straight up behind the hood of the car like total morons, and get shot.

I enjoyed the cause Slash/Norman was fighting for. I think he had the right idea about causing a revolution to overthrow the corporations. I think if I lived in that day and age with my current mind-set, I would join him to the bitter end. I am absolutely against the idea of corporate control. I believe that Slash/Norman was not too evil of a guy, because, as we saw, he was distraught over killing Dakota. In his heart I believe that he felt bad about killing someone who shouldn't be killed. Those other corporation guys Slash iced, they all deserved it, and there's no hard feelings over people who get their just desert. However, when someone who doesn't deserve to be killed is killed, therein lies the problem.

Terrible music, terrible shoot outs, terrible acting other than the Giggles guy, because he was in Blade Runner! I thought I recognized his voice when I first heard it. I was kind of disappointed when Giggles died. I liked him more than I liked any of the other characters. These are all things that killed this movie. The story line was worth the price of admission (or cost of buying the movie) because it's something that I never hope to ever face in my lifetime.

*Final judgement* Watch this movie in order to get a good idea of how you DON'T want the future to be. Good day

-Scott-

After viewing this movie, all I can say is "odd. Very odd." The sci-fi part of it seemed a bit overly-done; but I can't really comment on that aspect since I never advertised myself as a sci-fi expert. There were wayyyyyy too many explosions and shootings. I sometimes got the feeling the writers added all these when they needed time to fill since most of these scenes seemed pointless. The only redeeming quality of this movie was it's quirky plot in which the viewer couldn't help but be confused whether to route for the "good guy" or the "bad guy," since the "bad guy" (in terms of the guy who was the rebel of society) actually had the right idea. Other than that, there were way too many explosions and shootings. Almost to the point that it was sickening. But like a former poster on here said, "Hologram Man" may actually be worth looking at ... just to see what society should "not" be. If society ever got this bad, I wouldn't want to be in it.