The run-down small town has a humble outside visitor  just passing through. The small town doesn’t like outsiders and is overrun by rich bullies running an illegal racket- holding the small town hostage, but the traveling outsider doesn’t like bullies-and can take care of himself. This leads to the showdown between the outsider and the criminal organization. If that sounds familiar then you must have seen a few westerns in your day.  It’s a formula used for hundreds or westerns, and modern westerns, and now post modern westerns. It’s also used in many Japanese Samurai films during their years under a feudal system. A story trope as American as apple pie. Done right we will all forgive the cliches, done cheap and those cliches become a burden. Hellfire  is a post-modern western that is cheap. It’ dances around the chance to be good, it’s mildly-ok. 

The script is silly, uneven and really green, I mean really green,  but the film puts the passion of this kind of story on its sleeves. What hurts it is that it consistently plays it safe with its characters. A major sin with doing this trope story. There is no sense of real danger even when the bad guys threaten. We all know the outsider will not get harmed.  One wonders what  if Sam Packingpah or Don Siegel was at the helm how dangerous it would have been for the stunts, the action and every character. The music provided gives a flavor of longing or a harkening  to the genre. 

There’s a desire for a more palpable flavor to-it really could have been done-instead it just jumps to the next scene,and then the next scene hoping that the rising action keeps your interest. There’s a scene at the bar where two bad guys have a conflict and one raises his gun to the other and nothing happens, it’s just another chance for more talking. There was some great stunt action at the end, but by then we were lured to sleep with hokey amateurish dialogue.  “Hellfire” should have just shut up and let the characters just shoot it out. 5.5/10