Hardcore Henry

Starring: Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky, Haley Bennett, Tim Roth, Andrei Dementiev, Svetlana Ustinova
Directed by: Ilya Naishuller
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Henry awakens with no memory of who he is and must immediately fight to save his wife (Haley Bennett).

Review:

Tim: It's a little difficult to know exactly what to make of Hardcore Henry. On the one hand, a first-person action movie feels somewhat unique, but also somewhat gimmicky. It's an interesting technique, but not one we haven't seen before. However, the movie doesn't just rely on that one thing. It tells an insane story with a telekinetic, androids, and a bunch of unexpected science fiction twists. You add it all up, and the sheer insanity of this film is the biggest differentiator. I can't quite claim that this is a good movie, but it certainly offers up a ride unlike anything you've seen. I'd all this a decent effort.

I have to laugh as I try to comment on this movie. It's just so filled with unexpected things. Our silent main character (whose eyes we see everything through) is reconstructed. So, he's part human, part machine. We're thrust into the middle of the story, so we find out what's going on along with Henry. That part was easy enough to follow. Then, we find out the antagonist is a telekinetic and overall bad dude. That part was a little crazy, but okay. Then, we slowly uncover what's going on with Sharlto Copley's character(s) and it all starts to get pretty nuts. It was fun to watch this much craziness on screen.

The first-person action film makes sense. What would it look like if we were Henry, going through over-the-top battles? The action scenes are pretty good and offer up an interesting perspective for us. We've never really seen an action movie from this vantage point before. That's one of the most appealing aspects of the film. Sometimes this is fascinating- it puts us squarely in the center of the action and lets us feel what it must be like. Other times, though, it's limiting. It's hard to see what's going on, it's impossible to get any scope of what's actually taking place because of our limited view of the scene. That helped keep the budget down, but it prevents the film from feeling epic when it should have felt that way.

The cast is decent, I suppose. I've liked Copley since District 9. He's not great here, but he works well. He plays multiple characters fairly well. He does go too over-the-top, but it fits within the context of the film. Haley Bennett didn't seem believable as a scientist to me. It's not her looks, it's just her whole demeanor. I didn't believe that she was extremely intelligent. Danila Kozlovsky felt weak to me. I didn't love his character and had some issues with his performance. I suppose it's okay, but he wasn't one of the better parts of the film. I always like seeing Tim Roth, but he had next to nothing to do. Oftentimes I'll talk about the cast as being a chief reason to see a film. That's not the case here.

Action junkies will certainly want to check Hardcore Henry out. It's interesting to see the different twists they put on action sequences. This new vantage point offers a somewhat new experience for viewers. The movie is totally bonkers- sometimes that works in the film's favor, but sometimes it holds it back. Some of the action scenes are truly amazing, others felt limiting. This is a movie that I'm very glad I saw, but don't really see a reason to rewatch it. Hardcore Henry is a decent film, worth seeing for the novelty of it. However, it doesn't quite hold up as well as we would like it to.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Doom, District 9, Elysium