Hellbound (1994)
** (out of 4)
Chicago cops Frank Shatter (Chuck Norris) and Calvin Jackson (Calvin Levels) are investigating a bizarre and brutal murder of a Rabbi. Soon they're called to Israel to answer some questions and it becomes clear that they are dealing with some sort of Satanic force.
HELLBOUND turned out to be the final film of The Cannon Group as they'd go bankrupt shortly after. Sadly the film itself really isn't all that memorable and I think the biggest reason is probably budget issues, which is something that hampered a lot of the later day Cannon films. With that said, if you're a fan of the company or star Norris then there are enough decent moments here to make the film worth viewing.
I thought the film actually got off to a pretty good start as there was some nice action and some good laughs to be had. Norris is in fine form and manages to handle the various action scenes just fine. The earlier scenes in Chicago also had him delivering some nice one liners that managed to be quite funny. Norris and Levels have a nice chemistry together and help keep the film moving nicely.
Once things get to Israel everything just comes to a crashing halt. The film really looks very cheap and it just seems like the story ran out of ideas on what to do. More times than not Norris and company are just standing around having conversations and once the action scenes do start they're all rather routine. HELLBOUND certainly isn't going to be remembered for anything other than being the last film from Cannon but fans of the company might get a little entertainment out of it.
