HELLFIRE -- Modern DTV Industry Limits Action Auteur from Greatness

Review by Daniel Lima

There was a time when the direct-to-video market was a place where low-budget action cinema flourished. The resources were meager compared to the big Hollywood productions, but they were just enough to offer a space for stuntpeople, action choreographers, and martial artists to ply their trade without the expectations that come with a big studio project. As recently as a decade ago, veteran director Isaac Florentine could deliver a solid enough action-thriller while operating in this realm; today, he can only manage Hellfire, a mere vestige of what he used to deliver.

Set in the 1980s, the film follows Stephen Lang as a lone drifter who wanders into a small town infested with corruption. Both sides of the law are controlled by one man, and he’s been putting the squeeze on the townsfolk for years, forcing them to participate in his criminal operations. It just so happens that Lang has a particular set of skills that may turn the tide against this parochial tyrant.

It’s no secret that the DTV market has dried up, or at least the financing for it has. These days, just about every production is working with a fraction of the budget they could command in decades past, and expected to deliver a finished product in a fraction of the time. Obviously, this isn’t an ideal way to make any film, but considering the care that needs to be taken to safely produce the brand of action Florentine had built his reputation on, the lack of time and money is felt throughout the film.

Hellfire is meant to be a pseudo-Western, transplanting those familiar tropes to a more contemporary context, something Florentine has done plenty of times before. The style that he’s going for here, indebted especially to the stylish spaghetti westerns of old, depends heavily on the mise-en-scene, conjuring a sense of atmosphere, the oppressive air of a community that has turned into a desiccated husk as it caters to the whims of a cruel despot. That is largely absent, with much of the film set in a small handful of chintzy rooms, each one feeling every bit the cheap plastic set it undoubtedly is. This is the kind of movie that would greatly benefit from being shot on film, a format that would immediately lend even these staid, empty spaces some visual texture. Sadly, there’s no way a production like this would justify that expense.

That’s a shame, because it’s not as if the story is holding anyone’s attention. The lack of character in the setting is reflected in the ensemble, with the town fleshed out by a pair of sympathetic bar owners, Dolph Lundgren as the feckless sheriff, a myriad of nameless citizens who appear in one scene, and Stephen Lang sleepwalking through all the dialogue. The ultimate villain stays cloistered in his mansion; his most trusted lieutenants don’t square off against Lang until the finale. That means most of the runtime is just pointless exposition reestablishing the stakes, or action scenes featuring Stephen Lang killing what amounts to the help. There are no narrative twists, no character work to speak of, simply treading water until the climax. How can the climax be exciting if there’s no emotional foundation to build off? It isn’t.

The sole bright spot this film has to offer is the action set pieces, and even that is pretty dim. Florentine comes from a classical, tactile mode of action filmmaking, famously getting his start directing the action in Power Rangers and moving on to the likes of the Undisputed sequels and the Ninja films. He likes his squibs filling the air with particulates, mixing wides in his fight scenes with close ups to emphasize certain hits, seeing his stuntmen take nasty falls from just low enough that he can shoot the start and the landing in a single shot. He is one of the few Western directors that has proven that he truly understands the language of action in cinema.

You can only do so much, however, when you’ve got a week or two at most to shoot and your budget is whatever your financiers could find under their couch cushions. The lack of breathing room in time and money mean compromises need to be made in both the action design and in the actual performances; you can’t plan out crazy choreography knowing you won’t get multiple takes to nail it, and sometimes you’ll have to settle for assembling action in post. This means even with an old master at the helm, there’s a definite ceiling for most DTV actioners these days.

With that in mind, it might be a small miracle that what’s here is even serviceable. Stephen Lang performs just about as well as you can expect from a septuagenarian, and there’s some elegantly done doubling work for the myriad of things he cannot do. The shootouts boast horribly comped in muzzle flashes and a lack of bullet impacts kicking up detritus, both of which make the action feel weightless, but at least Florentine knows to use the geography of a space to its fullest extent. The fights are all decent, if a bit restrained due to the Lang’s age, and there’s some solid falls. All things considered, this is some of the best action at this level you’ll find today. What a low bar to clear.

Hellfire is a victim of the modern cinematic landscape, and this corner of it has been particularly toxic to anyone attempting to make anything with a personal stamp. As disappointing as this film is, it’s hard to fault someone with a proven pedigree like Isaac Florentine, knowing how restrictive the direct-to-video industry has become. We’ll always have Undisputed III: Redemption. 

Hellfire is now available on digital.

Rating: 2.5/5