Product Details

• Actors: Cuba Gooding Jr., Ray Liotta, Tommy Flanagan, Norman Reedus, Kim Coates
• Directors: Brian Smrz
• Writers: Chad Law, Evan Law
• Producers: Avi Lerner, Boaz Davidson, Danny Dimbort, Danny Lerner, David E. Ornston
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: April 29, 2008
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0013D8LMC
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #33,945 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Hero Wanted" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There are hidden agendas and devastating twists in this gritty thriller from the "simple plan gone awry" school. Liam (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who was left a broken man after his pregnant wife drowned, gets a new lease on life after he saves a child from a burning car. When he later intervenes in a botched bank heist, resulting in the shooting of a female teller and himself, his hero wish becomes a death wish as he tracks down the gang members. But Liam is no Charles Bronson.

Gooding indelibly captures Liam’s bald desperation (his character’s short-lived glory and downward spiral echoes his own misguided film career). First-time director Brian Smrz is a former stunt coordinator, and the film’s punishing fight scenes deliver the down and dirty goods. Jean Smart is excellent as the comatose teller’s mother, while Tommy Flannigan, as a wildly Scottish thug, entertainingly feasts on the scenery. Ray Liotta, as a veteran cop investigating the escalating carnage, does his best with such B-movie groaners as, "One minute he’s a hero in the news, the next he’s inside a bottle with no exit." "Redemption," Liam states at one point, "Sometimes you have to go through hell to get it." It doesn’t get any more hellish than Boat Trip, Daddy Day Camp or those Hanes underwear commercials, but Gooding finally gets some with his best starring performance since Radio. --Donald Liebenson

Product Description

Cuba Gooding, Jr. stars in this suspenseful crime thriller as a small town trash collector who stages a robbery so that he can impress a girl by being the hero, until the perfect plan takes an awful turn. After he awakens in a hospital, a man tracks down and murders the criminal that left him and a bank teller for dead during a robbery, only to end up having the slain thief's associates come after him in retaliation. Also starring Ray Liotta (Smokin' Aces, Revolver) and Tommy Flanagan (Smokin' Aces, Gladiator)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Itchy Trigger Finger, November 24, 2008

By	Lee Armstrong (Winterville, NC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Hero Wanted" is a bumpy, but gripping DVD. Cuba Gooding Jr. stars in the lead role as Liam Case, a trash collector who has a good day & a bad day. As the film begins, he rescues a child from a burning car. He wears the hero recognition uncomfortably. The film unfolds so that the audience moves deeper into the story as we see the relationships that were not apparent. Case lost his wife in a tragic accident in which she drowned while trapped in their car. Gooding starts moving out of his shell as he develops a crush on Kayla McQueen played by Christa Campbell. Unfortunately, when he goes to the bank where she works, she is shot in the head during the heist, confined in a coma. We come to learn how his buddy Swain that works with him on the trash truck, well played by Norman Reedus, has taken Case's idea on how to impress a girl to another level by bringing in the McGraw brothers. Steven Kowalski plays the leader Lynch while his younger brother Skinner played by Kim Coates discharges his gun during the bank heist, unfortunately fatally wounding Kayla. Detective Terry Subcott played by Ray Liotta tries to piece together the relationships of the crime. Case goes after younger brother Skinner in the factory where he sleeps and then after Lynch in a bar. Faced with a string of bodies, Subcott starts looking more closely at the vigilante played by Gooding. Tommy Flanagan whose scarface makes Derek looks like a crazed killer with an itchy trigger finger takes over the gang & lures Liam to a confrontation by kidnapping the little girl he saved at the beginning of the film. Meanwhile, Jean Smart from TV's "Designing Women" plays Melanie McQueen, Kayla's mother, and urges Liam to get revenge. The bloody battle that climaxes the film comes with a pivotal choice by Swain to side with Case. There's an irony as Liam hangs onto a tropical postcard labeled "Paradise." All in all, this was a good engaging shoot-'em-up. Gooding focuses well, being very different from his Oscar-winning performance in "Jerry McGuire." Enjoy!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very good movie, December 2, 2008

By	Marc Bouhana (FRANCE) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

well this is a very good movie good screenplay good actering

i enjoy it very much

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars america's critic, September 11, 2009

By	David R. Lingard (memphis tn) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

hero wanted was done great had good action story was cool, i reccomand this movie to all to go rent this one