First Person Failure..."Hardcore Henry"

Hardcore Henry (2015)  


Rated R

Starring Andrei Dementiev, Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky, Haley Bennett, Tim Roth

Written and Directed by Ilya Naishuller

The Story:

Henry (Dementiev) wakes up to see Estelle (Bennett) putting him back together on a lab table. She tells him sorry his memory is off, but they are married and there's a bad guy, Akan (Kozlovsky) trying to catch Henry and steal his technology. When Estelle is kidnapped, Henry goes into rescue mode to save his love.

So if you saw the trailer for this film, you know exactly what to expect.

It's basically a first person shooter videogame brought to life.

Lots of stunts, lots of action.

Little plot that hasn't already been used in a million other films.

And it's not really that good.

I think the reason why boils down to the first person shooter aspect.

In a videogame, the first person is you.

But this is a movie, it's scripted to go a certain way, so you, the audience, have no control over Henry.

And since Henry isn't really you, and there is no actor to watch, empathize or sympathize with, there is no emotional attachment or investment in the film.

This isn't watching John McClane get beat down and hoping he'll come up with one solution after the next to beat the bad guys.

This is watching some arms and legs punch and kick and blow stuff up.

Watch the trailer...it's pretty much the entire movie, but with a better soundtrack, and much less time wasted.

Oh, and PS:

If you didn't think the "wife" was in on it the whole time, you haven't seen enough films yet.

Oops.

Spoiler.

:)

Final Grade: F