Hardcore Henry is a first person perspective action film, written and directed by Ilya Naishuller, that follows the exploits of a man named Henry who has no memory of who he is yet must find a way to stop a maniacal warlord from creating an army of bio engineered soldiers. The movie stars Sharlto Copley, Tim Rpth, Haley Bennett, and Danila Koslovsky.
The Review:
I suppose if you are going to make your feature film debut, you might as well do something to get yourself notices and Moscow born director Ilya Naishuller has done just that. Shooting his entire film for a first person perspective similar to a lot of video games that focus on shooting everything in sight is a novel concept proven to be effective by the result of a music video he shot in the same way. The video has been viewed over 40 million times between Youtube and Vimeo so he was defitinitely on to something.
Unfortunately, for a feature length film, the novelty quickly wears off and what should have been a really exciting climax was just excessive and boring. Using this gimmick throughout the entire film led to a dependence on some hardcore violence to keep the audience engaged, which it did to a point, as well as the addition of Sharlto Copley in an absolutely brilliant role that had to be written with him in mind. I can't really tell you why without giving some really cool stuff away so just trust me that he does a fantastic job bringing to life a truly unique character.
The Verdict:
Hardcore Henry is basically like watching someone else play a video game so if you are into that, you just might enjoy this movie. I will say I enjoyed the film for what it was, a blood splattering good time filled with explosions and hookers, but it still left a lot to be desired and the first person perspective gimmick just wasn't enough to keep me interested.
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