Cuba Gooding may be making straight to DVD films but they’re not all bad. Gooding stars as Luke Gibson in HARDWIRED. Luke and his wife start the film off en route for a doctor’s visit for the child they are expected when suddenly they are rammed in the side by a truck, resulting in Luke’s wife and unborn child dying and Luke heading for the operating table. When he wakes, Luke has little memory concerning himself of his family and heads home.
But he’s having problems. Luke keeps seeing walking ads in front of him that no one else can. The same image of a man hawking a watch and more keep popping up and Luke finds his grasp on reality in question. He feels compelled to posses the item on display and starts to rob a jewelry store window with the watch in it. As a guard tries to stop him, Luke gets away but not before the police close in. Only more words appearing in the air before him guide him to safety and a meeting with Punk Red (Tatiana Maslany) and Punk Blue (Juan Riedinger).
The duo take him to a secret lab where he meets Hal (Michael Ironside), a scientist and father of Keyboard (Chad Krowchuck), a paralyzed genius who once worked for Hexx Corporation. While there, he was involved with an implant device known as a psi-comp implant that would allow Hexx Corp. to project advertising images to the person with the chip, thus explaining Luke’s visions. Finding this to be immoral, Keyboard tried to stop it, only to end up in an “accident” and tossed aside.
Keyboard and his crew explain everything that has happened to Luke and ask him for his help. In return for the attempted retrieval of Luke’s memories (wiped out by Hexx Corp.) they want him to kill its founder and top man, Virgil (Val Kilmer). Luke agrees and as his memory comes the team also lets him know just how his accident came to be. Hexx Corp. was responsible for the termination of his insurance as well as the accident that took the life of his wife and unborn child.
As Hexx Corporation’s attack team closes in on Keyboard and his group, Punk Red and Blue and Luke head out with enough information to destroy Hexx Corp. Now a man on a mission, Luke is determined to bring his own brand of justice to Virgil. But Virgil is not one to go down without a fight.
This movie offers a cyber-punk attitude and world view that holds true for the tale. The technology and appearance of the world in which it takes place is believable. And that helps as the story unfolds.
The film isn’t a mega-budget action flick, but delivers on all counts in its own low budget way. A direct-to-DVD release its one of those films dropped at the DVD rental store’s front steps like an unwanted child that then offers a decent flick. The acting is well done and the characters benefit greatly from this. The effects are solid and also play a major role.
Face it, this movie is not Shakespeare but it is an entertaining night’s rental. You get plenty of action, a heart tugging story and a revenge flick all in one.
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