Hardcore Henry (2016)

Hardcore Henry - R

An augmented man with no memory chases after his wife who is kidnapped out of the Russian lab he was created in, rushing through the buildings, streets and rails in a nonstop barrage of violence and first person camera work in the very video-game like Hardcore Henry.

Hardcore Henry is basically the longest (and worst acted) GoPro camera commercial in existence. Yet the footage doesn't have the visual definition usually seen on the big screen for a big release, it can be an unpleasant blurry mess (especially in low light).  The acting is atrocious, the main villain has followed the "bad movie actor playbook" as close as possible, shouting lines and gritting teeth and flipping his hair while avoiding actually killing the protagonist at all times.  The other extras and leads limp along in his wake.

Hardcore Henry is original in being the first movie to pull this genre off, and yet is wholly unoriginal by not only aping most First Person video games but also not matching them.  With high end PCs and PS4s now most games look better than Henry's scummy sunlit scenes.  The film's finale is the worst kind of final video game level, with terrible video graphics, long time coming plot twist, easily disposed cannon fodder and hammy acting from your cackling final Boss.  But considering how low budget H. Henry must be, how much seat of the pants filmmaking it must have used, you can't help but gain a grudging respect for the project (and quite a bit of fun).

For instance, Sharlto Copley's role as a scientist who has invented Henry's technology is a breath of fresh air from all the mind numbing punching and jumping.  Despite a severely underwhelming lead role in Eleysium and being a possible albatross on this production, here his comedic antics make him the only visible actor who has a grasp of how to behave on camera.  And he takes it to extremes (much to the filmmakers credit) by playing a plethora of characters ala Peter Sellers, each with their own costumes and funny accents.  It is the only part of Henry that took any balls to put to screen, after all the action stunt work and parkour sequences are what we would expect.  Add that to a seldom seen peek into the suburban sprawl of life in Russia and it's satellite states, some outstanding action and death defying stunts makes Hardcore Henry not a bad movie, it's just not as violent as the title promised, not as original as it's poster promised, and not as revolutionary as it is entertaining.

5.5 Steel Knuckles out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)