At one time Wesley Snipes was the go to man for action with films like Passenger 57, Demolition Man and the Blade Trilogy, but then over the years he slipped into the straight to video market. To make matters worse his personal life took a horrible turn sending him away for some time and it felt like he was gone for sure, but now he is back with his latest film Gallowwalkers that featured an interesting trailer, but does it pack the punch needed to bring him back on top?
Gallowwalkers follows a mysterious gunman who is cursed that all that die by his gun return from the dead. Now he is hunted by a gang of his undead victims hell bent on vengeance against him, but his hatred for their past crimes against him has him out to exact revenge against them again. This movie could have been a really fun time, but is just a jumbled mess. Snipes brings his normal swagger to the film and doesn't seem to have lost a step playing this almost like a western version of Blade. The issue comes with the rest of the cast that seemed to be a selection of B movie actors that you would normally see in a SyFy channel movie. The story itself is all over the place playing like a mix of the Crow, Blade, and even a hint of the Road Warrior. All of these should have made for a great western action piece and this film could have worked way better, especially with Snipes, but there is just no focus to keep it grounded. There is a few decent action pieces, but the over use of CGI blood and some bad effects makes it loose its effectiveness and look a bit cheesy.
This movie may have worked on the cheese level had it been headlined by someone other than Snipes. He has delivered so much better than this even in his previous straight to video outings that it is a bit sad. Hopefully his addition to the Expendables franchise will give him the career boost he needs as he has the ability to deliver and the action world is ready to welcome the old Wesley back, but with projects like this it's going to be a long bumpy road.
Gallowwalkers follows a mysterious gunman who is cursed that all that die by his gun return from the dead. Now he is hunted by a gang of his undead victims hell bent on vengeance against him, but his hatred for their past crimes against him has him out to exact revenge against them again. This movie could have been a really fun time, but is just a jumbled mess. Snipes brings his normal swagger to the film and doesn't seem to have lost a step playing this almost like a western version of Blade. The issue comes with the rest of the cast that seemed to be a selection of B movie actors that you would normally see in a SyFy channel movie. The story itself is all over the place playing like a mix of the Crow, Blade, and even a hint of the Road Warrior. All of these should have made for a great western action piece and this film could have worked way better, especially with Snipes, but there is just no focus to keep it grounded. There is a few decent action pieces, but the over use of CGI blood and some bad effects makes it loose its effectiveness and look a bit cheesy.
This movie may have worked on the cheese level had it been headlined by someone other than Snipes. He has delivered so much better than this even in his previous straight to video outings that it is a bit sad. Hopefully his addition to the Expendables franchise will give him the career boost he needs as he has the ability to deliver and the action world is ready to welcome the old Wesley back, but with projects like this it's going to be a long bumpy road.