IMDb > Hologram Man (1995) > IMDb user comments

IMDb user comments for
Hologram Man (1995) More at IMDbPro »

Filter: Hide Spoilers:
Index 9 comments in total 

5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Has it's faults, but overall it's a fairly enjoyable movie that certainly passes the time., 10 December 2004
Author: aloep from Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland

*SPOILERS*

It's the millennium and the city of Los Angeles is now controlled by "California Corporation", led by Edward Jamison who is a particularly ruthless leader. For example, he has made it illegal to turn off the corporations news broadcast and doesn't seem to care if there's human casualties in a hostage situation as long as the target is taken out. Norman "Slash" Gallagher is violently opposed to the corporation, and says "California Corporation took Los Angeles away from us. Now we are here to take it back.". From what we see, the corporation is corrupt and Slash more or less has the right idea but unfortunately he makes his point in the wrong way which involves killing a lot of innocent civilians. After a large scale shootout and a bus chase, rookie cop Decoda arrests Norman and he is sentenced to "holographic stasis" where their mind and soul is stored on a computer to be reprogrammed as a good citizen and released back into society. 5 years later, when Slash is set to be released, a former employee of the corp. hacks into the system and frees Slash as a hologram before he can be reprogrammed. Here, he will go on his rampage to prove his point once again but this time he can walk through walls, fire, anything and gunfire has no effect on him. Eventually Slash shoots Decoda and minutes before dying, his girlfriend Natalie brings him back as a hologram which finally gives him the power and the strength to take out Slash once and for all.

I'd read several negative reviews on this but wanted to see it anyway as by now I've nearly all of PM Entertainment's post 1993 movies. It's nowhere near PM's best movie but it's far from their worst and provides a decently entertaining 90 minutes. A fun enough premise, tons of explosions, car wrecks and gunfire aplenty and the effects are surprisingly good for direct to video material of the time. The action scenes are especially polished and are trademark PM. The large scale intro includes a large number of vehicles exploding and we have the typical car chase in which Slash hijacks a city bus and chases after a limo containing the governor and Decoda which ends in a bang and the governor being killed. The explosions are pretty and the addition of futuristic vehicles is a nice touch, as many DTV movies don't have the budget to cover that. Of course now that we're passed 2000 it looks a little silly but that's the sort of thing we have to accept. Look at the world Escape From New York portrays as 1997.

However, the movie is certainly not without it's faults and there were certain things which left me puzzled. What kind of a hero is Decoda when he's perfectly willing to go by the rules that the corporation has set? Can't he see that Jamison is a ruthless leader who is no better than Slash and all he wants is power? Even after Jamison makes it clear that he doesn't care about casualties as long as Slash is taken down, he still accepts it and only turns on Jamison after he returns as a hologram. Also, this is after Decoda knows that gunfire has no effect on Slash, so why keep holding him up with large groups of armed Police? That's just asking for casualties. I don't really know why it didn't occur to any of them to put somebody into "holographic stasis" to go after Slash, as that is the only way he could be taken out. Also, citizens appear to be driving sleek, futuristic vehicles so why are the police driving old Ford Taurus's, Mazda MPV's and Chevrolet Caprice's? There are also certain scenes which lead to nowhere. One was a warehouse shootout which appears to be filmed at the docks at Long Beach and the soul purpose of it being there seemed to be that the director just felt it had been too long since the last action scene, so he just threw that in for good measure. There is also a sex scene involving Slash and his girlfriend I presume who is killed off near the start but is this necessary? What's the point in showing us Decoda taking a virtual reality course? Sure, it shows he has a perfect shot but that is now useless because Slash is a hologram and gunfire has no effect.

Fortunately however, none of the above has a particularly large impact on the entertainment value of the movie itself and it remains entertaining throughout and moves quickly enough for much of it's runtime.

Evan Lurie is especially entertaining as the character of Slash Gallagher. Granted, what he does doesn't require a great deal of effort in the thespian department but he plays the character in a suitably over the top fashion about as well as anyone could do in a movie like this. William Sanderson as the up his own arse "genius" computer geek is fun, as is Nicholas Worth as "One Eye" who attacks Sanderson's character with a bunch of ridiculous computer related insults such as "You little computer virus" or "You little gigabyte chipset"! All in all, the villains get two thumbs up from me and appear to be having fun themselves playing the parts. But this leads to one of the films greatest problems, which is Joe Lara's incredibly bland hero. He makes the mistake of playing the character straight and is completely overshadowed by the far more charismatic bunch of baddies, and given the dullness of his character and the fact he keeps associating with Jamison, I found it hard to route for him as the hero until he finally turned on Jamison!

Overall, Hologram Man is badly flawed but it's certainly an entertaining movie. If your expectations aren't too high and you don't take it too seriously, then this is an enjoyable little flick. With a better hero and slightly more fluid direction, we could have had a DTV winner on our hands but as it stands, it's worth a watch nonetheless.

By the way the bus chase is certainly not a rip off of Speed. The chase is typical PM fare, and almost all of their action movies from this period include some form of vehicle chase. Plus this movie has a copyright date of 1994 at the end credits, so it's most likely that it was filmed before Speed came out.

Was the above comment useful to you?

2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Biiiiiiiiiig Explosions!!!, 6 June 2002
4/10
Author: Scott (scott.m.hathaway@gmail.com) from Greensboro, N.C.

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-

Was the above comment useful to you?

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Very very odd movie, 8 November 2002
2/10
Author: elevatormusicman from Pennsylvania, USA

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.

Was the above comment useful to you?

Plug into your worst nightmare, 6 August 2006
4/10
Author: Gerand Geraldson from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Hologram Man is about this ultra insane killer named Slash Gallagher who (played by Evan Lurie)wants to take over L.A. and a cop named Decoda (played by Joe Lara) who tries and stops him on his first day.

This Slash Gallagher is ultra evil and insane. Right at the beginning of the movie he hijacks a city bus (and even takes the roof of it off), then shoots 6-7 cops, nabs a city official + later kills him, then shoots a cop in the arm, forces him + Decoda to play Russian Roulette, shoots the cop again before Decoda finally takes him down.

Gallagher is then sent to this special prison where they literally try to reprogram his mind. But 5 years later on his evaluation date (his gang members (which no one bothered to search for and arrest all these years) are ready. Especially since one (named Manny Giggles) of them works at the prison. He has it so Gallagher turns into an even worse killer. Gallagher immediately escapes the prison to continue his reign of terror, kidnapping the new city official and later killing him and many others, all the while he is completely invincible (not even a 20 mile radius A-bomb dropped dead on will faze him). The only way Decoda's going to catch him is becoming like him.

I bought this movie at Wal*Mart for $3.33 and basically I'm not too disappointed at the price (except that there's no subtitles and the movie won't resume where you left off, at best it starts at the chapter you were watching). The cast list really shows no one popular. The music is pretty cheesy, though.

My opinion, if you want to watch a movie about an insane killer, then you'll probably like this one. Gallagher is pretty much an enjoyable serial killer. He even has a typical gang (featuring Manny Giggles (computer and tech wiz (or more so nerd)) 8-ball (a pumped up black guy (reminds me of Morphius from Matrix and Luther from Mission Impossible)) and One-eye (a guy with a patch over one of his eyes)).

Manny Giggles (played by William Sanderson) 8-Ball (played by Tommy 'Tiny' Lister) One-eye/Patch (played by Nicholas Worth (I))

The movie's rated R due to a sex scene, decent amount of language (+15 F-words and a bunch of other colorful phrases), and tons of violence (although most of it is just explosions and people getting shot).

Overall Grade: D+

Was the above comment useful to you?

2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
The Most Unintentionally Funny Movie Ever !!!, 20 February 2004
Author: Ryan from NYC

I am not a fan of the "so bad you love them" movies but Hologram Man has converted me. Every line of dialogue was cliche from the rookie cop looking at the Rebel Detective- with his non regulation hair and perfect suits- and saying, "That's not in the manual" to the loud and obnoxious supervisor saying, "You're a loose cannon."

The opening bus chase scene was a complete rip off, down to camera angles, from Speed and Terminator 2.

I especially like how five years pass and every car has been replaced by sleek and futuristic vehicles.

This movie is great, especially from a writer's perspective of what not to do, there are lame attempts to instantly create tension that come off as just hack and downright funny.

This movie is a riot.

Was the above comment useful to you?

2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
I like the way this title sounds. It's a good one., 27 August 1999
10/10
Author: Laura Rose Bologna from Massapequa, NY

Another excellent Joe Lara movie. All the cast were great but Joe is my favorite. I saw this one quite a few times too. You gotta see this Sci-fi. It's another action flick. It's real cool.

Was the above comment useful to you?

0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Hollow yet dense..., 6 August 2006
2/10
Author: Frank Markland from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

********Possible Spoilers******** Joe Lara stars as Dakota a by the book cop who captures Slash Gallagher (Evan Lurie) however in hologram form it becomes apparent that he is even more powerful(One of the film's biggest plot holes.) and it seems that it is only Dakota who can stop him. Michael Nouri stars as President Jameson who is sorely underused. I want to make one thing clear, a hologram is nothing but a virtual image, the level of suspension of belief we are asked to swallow is a fairly tall order especially that we are never told how exactly you make a person a hologram and how exactly can they contain the same intelligence and memories of the person. Or for that matter how they are able to fight and all that. Straight to video science fiction is always a tall order to follow but such numerous plot'holes really distract the viewer. For instance the hero goes and snatches the antagonists' body and destroys it, despite the obvious fact that it is probably far easier to kill the villain in human form than as hologram form. Also the other annoying plot angle is just exactly how Lurie's character has become so powerful, if you are going to make a hologram the strongest why use it on the most dangerous person in the world? This is just crazy. Sadly Hologram Man is unbearable to watch because the action sequences are shot without flair and basically consist of bad guys winning and then losing as the hero arrives. There are so many questions raised by the premise (and the premise is very questionable to begin with) that we wonder exactly how the world got this way and why for instance is automatically the corporations running the show? What happened to the old way? The film doesn't care and therefore it proceeds to fling itself to one action sequence to another. The action sequences (Excepting the one that involves John Amos)are all boring and derivative of The Terminator, Demolition Man and Robocop. One especially noticeable steal is from They Live involving a machine spotter to which Lurie hits with a shotgun. I could go on on how ludicrous this all is but I have to state the obvious, movies like this live or die by the ambitions taken with the material. Hologram Man is bankrupt in all essential areas and in the end it all becomes a tiresome effort which recalls far superior movies. The only real life in the movie comes from Michael Nouri, John Amos and William Sanderson but they are so annoyingly underused that they can't save this turkey.

* out of 4-(Bad)

Was the above comment useful to you?

0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
It had so much potential..., 22 November 2003
Author: Wizard-8 from Victoria, BC

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.

Was the above comment useful to you?

3 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
May be suitable for Christmas Dinner... if you are desperate., 3 December 1998
1/10
Author: NikTesla from Auckland, New Zealand

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.

Was the above comment useful to you?

Add another comment

Related Links

Plot summary Ratings External reviews
Parents Guide Plot keywords Main details
Your user comments Your vote history