Hero Wanted

Liam Case once became a local hero by pulling a girl from a burning car, but the fame has faded and his life as a garbage man has not gone the way he hoped. Determined to win over a bank teller he admires, Liam arranges a robbery with some questionable acquaintances so that he can step in at the right moment and play the rescuer. The scheme falls apart when his partners ignore the plan and people are shot, leaving Liam wounded and the woman he cares about badly hurt. Once he recovers, he sets out on his own to track down the men who betrayed him, drawing the attention of both the criminal underworld and a police detective investigating the case. The story moves between past and present to piece together how the events unfolded.

Brian Smrz directed this 2008 American action crime thriller from a screenplay by Chad Law and Evan Law, his first feature behind the camera. Cuba Gooding Jr. leads as Liam, with Ray Liotta as Detective Terry Subcott, Norman Reedus, Kim Coates, Tommy Flanagan and Jean Smart among the cast. Made for about 7 million dollars, it runs 95 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.5 from roughly 7,600 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 5.3 from a much smaller number of votes, indicating a modest reception that has drawn little attention over the years.