Mess With This Chicago Cop And There’s Hell To Pay!
Starring: Chuck Norris, Calvin Levels, Sheree J. Wilson, Christopher Neame
Director: Aaron Norris
1994 | 95 Minutes | Rated R
“If you’re really that tough, let’s see.” – Sgt. Shatter
Chuck Norris vs. The Devil… No Contest. Chuck Norris wins every time.
Sgt. Shatter (Chuck Norris) and Detective Jackson (Calvin Levels) are two Chicago cops sent to Israel for questioning following a rabbi’s murder in Chicago. While in Israel Shatter and Jackson realize that they are actually in pursuit of a Satanic being, Prosatanos (Christopher Neame), who hasn’t been seen since being locked in a tomb by King Richard during the Crusades. Richard had broken Prosatanos’ scepter into nine pieces and scattered them throughout the world. Now Prosatanos is seeking out those nine pieces of his scepter to take control of the world. Meanwhile, Shatter and Jackson are trying to find and stop Prosatanos before he can take control of Earth.
Never mind that it makes ZERO sense to send Chicago cops to Israel for a murder investigation. If you want to enjoy HellBound you are going to want to check your brain at the door. Logic has no place here.
Israel makes for a great setting. This is one of those movies that couldn’t have been filmed anywhere else.
The thing that I really loved about HellBound was that it didn’t need a ridiculous budget and enormous amounts of CGI to create a Satanic threat. Prosatanos has a relatively simple but incredibly creepy look. He has no eyebrows, oval shaped pupils, a skullet and sharp fingernails able to rip a man’s heart from his chest. Pair this look with a deep demonic sounding voice and you have one Hell of a demonic entity. If Hollywood had made this movie today he certainly would have been made entirely of CGI and we would have been robbed of such an awesome villain.
HellBound does have a bit of humor thrown in through Shatter’s mop headed African-American partner, Detective Jackson, and a young Israeli pick-pocket. I did laugh a few times but it is mostly just cheese.
The action is kind of limited up until the very end where we finally get the mano-a-mano fight between Shatter and Prosatanos. The fight choreography (if there really was any) is pretty much at the level of Walker Texas Ranger. It is pretty much just Norris throwing spinning roundhouses at a big devil dude who in return just throws Norris around the room. Not really very good but still somehow a lot of fun.
If you read the back of the DVD case and still decided to put the disc in to watch then you should pretty well know what to expect. You know that by the end of the movie you are going to get Chuck Norris fighting with a demon. If that is something that excites you then pop that baby in the DVD player… if not then just stay away. We don’t need to hear you complain that the story didn’t make sense or that the characters weren’t developed enough or that Jackson is some sort of racial stereotype. Those facts are all probably true but what did you expect?
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