Good men can do bad things.
A brutal blend of modern-day Western and hard-boiled noir, twisty crime thriller The Hollow Point finds Patrick Wilson’s newly arrived small-town Arizona sheriff going up against a relentless cartel hitman (John Leguizamo) after stumbling upon an ammunition smuggling ring on the US-Mexico border.
The film’s first surprise is that, thanks to lax US gun control, it is Americans smuggling bullets into Mexico and not the other way round. Further shocks soon follow. However, the convoluted plot draws in so many characters – including Jim Belushi’s shifty car salesman and the sheriff’s weary ex, played by Lynn Collins – that the action sometimes goes off the boil.
Nevertheless, Wilson makes a rugged hero, while Ian McShane is enjoyably ripe as the grizzled, whisky-swigging, morally compromised former sheriff he is replacing. Brace yourself, though. Both of them really do get put through a bloody wringer before the end.
Certificate 15. Runtime 97 mins. Director Gonzalo López-Gallego
The Hollow Point debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere on Saturday 11 June. Available on Blu-ray & DVD from Altitude Film Distribution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QexMA2iVXII
