Released: April 2016
Director: Ilya Naishuller
Rated R
Run Time: 95 Minutes
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Cast:
Sharlto Copley: Jimmy
Danila Kozlovsky: Akan
Haley Benett: Estelle
Tim Roth: Henry’s Father
I love video games. Anybody who knows me can tell you that. I’ve been gaming for most of my life. I didn’t start REALLY getting into games until Wolfenstein 3-D. Wolfenstein 3-D was a first-person shooter. For those who don’t know, a first-person shooter video game is played entirely from the perspective of the character you’re playing. You’ve got a weapon in your hands and you’re moving in a fairly 3-dimensional space. But the game that really cemented my love for that particular genre was, and still is, Doom. Movies based on video games have been around since 1993, but the first video game movie to feature an entire sequence from the first-person perspective, ironically enough, was Doom starring Dwayne Johnson. Not a great movie, but it had some really good stuff in it. There was a section in the film where the film switched perspectives to one of the main characters. It was a 5-minute sequence but it was extremely memorable. So, how would you do that for a full 90 minutes? I give you Hardcore Henry.
The film opens as the character of Henry wakes up with a missing arm and leg. A cybernetic arm and leg are then attached when the laboratory where they are at is attacked by a mysterious telekenetic warlord, Akan. After kidnapping Henry’s wife, Estelle, Henry goes on the run and meets up with an eccentric character named Jimmy. That’s the gist of the story. For a film like this, the story is secondary to what’s happening on the screen. Now the first thing you will notice, is that the entire film is filmed strictly from a first-person perspective. You never actually see Henry’s face at all until towards the end of the movie, and even then it’s only a reflection. So now we have a movie that plays out like a first-person shooter video game. The question is: Does it work? The short answer is, yes, mostly.
I’m going to warn you: If you get motion sickness of any kind or really don’t like shaky-cam, stay away. The nature of the whole first-person perspective is to place the audience directly in the shoes of the main character. Because of that, the camera tends to be quite shaky at times and it moves fast, so it may be hard for you to keep up. If you can keep up with what’s going on, you are treated to a very visually interesting action movie. When Henry wakes up, he has no idea what’s going, so the audience doesn’t know what’s happening until we start piecing things together with the help of Jimmy.
I’m going to flat-out say it: The acting in this film, aside from Sharlto Copley is basic at most. Sharlto Copley plays the most interesting character in the movie, and one of the most interesting characters of his career. Yeah, the character is there for mostly comic relief, but he’s also there as a guide for the audience by telling Henry, and therefor, the audience what’s really going on, and why he’s helping Henry. The villain of Akan is a kind of an albino telekenetic nutjob that we really don’t know anything about. He’s not the worst villain I’ve seen, he’s just…bleh. But again, you really don’t go to a movie like this for deep characterization and story. No, you come for the action. If you’ve ever played a first-person shooter, you know it can get pretty crazy with a ton of enemies on the screen. Hardcore Henry plays out exactly like one of those games, and it really works. The action is brutal, fast, and extremely bloody. People get eviscerated and blown to pieces, while cars explode and people fall from helicopters. One of the reasons the first-person perspective works so well in a movie like this, is the stunt-work. Between the parkour scenes and shootouts, this movie has it all. The stunts are absolutely out-of-this world. I mean that in a good way. The whole movie was filmed in Russia, so a lot of the stunt men are really good at what they do. Henry is played by several stuntmen who assume the role for a particular stunt. You’ve got one guy is good parkour, another who is good at falling, and yet another, who knows horses. The various kinds of stunts that take place are absolutely jaw-dropping. There’s this sequence early on where Henry is chasing another guy and repells down a 16-story building. The car chases are NUTS. The one where he’s riding shotgun in one of those old motorcycles that has a side-car for a passenger, and Henry wields a fifty-calibur machine gun. It’s very well-done. I have to give the film-makers credit for that.
It’s not all sunshine and roses, though. The movie moves at such a break-neck pace, that we really don’t get time to breathe. I don’t mind a wall-to-wall action film, but with the first-person perspective, we need to get a few moments where we can get our heads on straight, and some of the action scenes are so chaotic, you can’t really see what’s going on. That being said, the whole is just plain bonkers. If you’re looking for a unique action movie that doesn’t let up, Hardcore Henry fits the bill. Sharlto Copley’s performance alone is worth the price of admission. Overall, this movie is pretty freakin’ awesome. It’s one of the best straight-up action movies this year and it’s generally a hell of a lot of fun. I definitely recommend it. 8/10 is my final verdict.