User Reviews

Hellbinders is set in the City of Angels as ruthless killer for hire Max (Ray Park) is hired by some local corrupt cops to take down an evil cult,after waving a load of drug money in his face Max agrees & together with his team Carmen (Ingrid Sonray) & George (Randy Hall) sets out to complete his mission. However Max is in it for the money & before he tries to kill the cult he sells them an ancient book he stole for them, as the bullets fly both Carmen & George are possessed by demons known as Oni controlled by a demon called Leigon as the body hop from human to human. Leigon's plan is to open a doorway to hell to free millions of other demons with which to take over the world & Max is right in the thick of it. Along with a centuries old Knights Templar called Cain (Esteban Cueto) & a Japanese assassin called Ryu (Johnny Yong Bosch) the only hope for the world are the three unlikely allies...

During the opening credits for Hellbinders (which start at around the ten minute mark after a long set-up) there are three director's listed each divided into sections, the first credits is for 'The Story of Max' directed by Hrio Coda, next is 'The Story of Ryu' directed by David Wald & finally 'The Story of Cain' directed by Mitch Gould although strangely the film itself isn't split up into three sections like the credits suggest & while there are three distinct character's here they all interact with each other constantly so I assume each directed was given his own character which makes no sense to me but there you go. The film itself isn't very good, it's a fantasy comic book style action film with plenty of martial arts & shoot-outs as three mismatched hero's come up against the forces of hell, it really isn't as good as it sounds. The plot has too much religious mysticism that just made my eyes glaze over with talk of ancient demons, warrior clans & destiny. Also while we see all these supernatural things happening & evil demons that are supposed to threaten the entire world the film never show's us anything normal, it never show's us that real world to put whats happening in context & give it some gravity or relevance. At 87 minutes long it felt longer, the action scenes are quite static & forgettable while the plot didn't grab me. Set in a fictional city this actually felt a lot like Blade (1998) with some superhero doing battle against the forces of evil but obviously nowhere near as good.

The film tries hard to feel like a graphic novel or a comic book with lots of scenes beginning in frames with boxes of writing setting the scene, it happens a lot & starts to become irritating after a while. The gore & violence isn't anything special, there's a cut off arm, a couple of bloody sword wounds & lots of kicking, punching, shooting & sword fighting but it's nothing you haven't seen before & it really isn't that impressive. Most of the fights takes place withing a couple of rooms as the budget probably didn't stretch to sets. The CGI effects are OK but CGI blood never looks convincing.

The IMDb says Hellbinders had a budget of about $1,300,000 which is a lot of money, I actually find it hard to believe that it did cost that much & if it did where did the money go? The main actor here is Ray Park who is better known as Darth Maul from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) while his co-star Johnny Yong Bosch is better known for his starring role in the various Power rangers series back in the mid to late 90's.

Hellbinders is a pretty average comic book martial arts horror about demonic possession, the end of the world & various people who have to work together to stop it. While not a terrible film I would be hard pushed to describe it as anything more than average.

Three assassins are brought together to battle with a demon legion who are inhabiting innocent people and jumping from body to body.

Action film with supernatural overtones is done in a style that approximates a comic book. The fight sequences are well done, and there are some witty exchanges, but as for the rest of the film I'm not too sure. For me the film came off as a bit cheesy. The performances are a mixed bag, something I can't blame on the actors since even star Ray Park, who is normally quite good, comes off as rather weak. I think the problem is that the entire film feels like its geared to get to the action bits, which while good seem to go on much too long. The opening fight in biblical times seems to never end.

Honestly I didn't care for the film and feel like I wasted the time I took to see it.

The film uses cartoon boxes and subscripts to give you that animated superhero/grindhouse feel to the film, but fails to achieve that goal by the lack of graphic violence, being light on blood and babes. The film opens with the fighting and burial of the demon "Legion" in the desert. It then moves into three quick subplots. Max (ray Park) is an English accent mercenary leading a killing team in Los Angeles. He has a big gig coming up. In a major plot point we discover he had been dead for 20 minutes before recovering. The second subplot involves Ninja assassin Ryu (Johnny Yong Bosch) also operating in LA. The third subplot is Cain (Esteban Cueto) not to be confused with the Seagal character Kane. They are both big lumbering individuals who use the slow motion one punch technique. Cain, a Night Templar who has aged gracefully, also is a master of ancient weapons such as conduit.

The three come together and must fight Legion and his minions before he can open the gates of one of the kingdoms of hell and release millions of demons into LA, as if we would notice. The catch is, once a demon is killed, it can enter a new soul and turn an innocent into another killing demon.

The film started out good, but then the plot become disjointed. They needed to make one of the big three a woman. Max had good lines which gave us some comic relief. The other two characters couldn't deliver their lines and bored me to tears. Part of a Walmart 10 pack.

Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

Here I am, sitting in front of my computer, watching this film. I expected an awesome film of gun play, sword fights, and just action in general. what I got instead was a mess of kool-ade red blood, amazing disappearing bullet holes, and really bad set design.

1. Any time anyone gets shot, little black spurts of CG blood shoot out. and that's the end of it.

2. Esteban Cueto, Cain, has a hard time making himself sound convincing. maybe it was just the script, seeing as how everyone sounded a bit weak. (Estaban looks to the side and says in a calm voice, as if no one died, "we should give them a proper burial")

3.the set design is downright awful. There was one room, which I guess is a dungeon, but it just looks like some guy just bought some wallpaper that looked like bricks. cardboard (that only look like cardboard) gates to be crashed through, flickering light bulbs to look like candles,

4. the religious references were numerous, and seemed like they were just trying to pad for time.

5. most sound effects are either out of sync, or sounds like they pulled them out of a 1991 video game. (Estaban walks out of a room. his footsteps echo through the room, even when he doesn't step.)

I find myself wondering where all the money went in this movie. I'm guessing the special effects, seeing as how there is a lot of them.

all in all, the movie is terrible. I found myself laughing more than I should have, and I want my money (and that wasted time) back.

I was so impressed by this movie. It's one of the best low budget features around.

It's chock full of great action, has a good story and acting too.

I was particularly impressed by Ray Park. Really loved the comic book vibe.

The fight scenes rock, which isn't surprising since it was created by some of the industries top action guys. What was surprising was the cool visuals.

For being a small movie, it certainly makes a big impact. If you like action, you're gonna love this.