K-SCORE: 89
Writer/Director: Ilya Naishuller
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky, Haley Bennett, Tim Roth
Spoiler Level: Moderate
“unique and pulse-pounding action”
Do you want your movies to make you feel like you’re being shot, punched in the face, hit by a car, and kicked out of flying vehicles while running on adrenaline and a literal battery, maybe while doing blow in a strip club of Russian whores who carry samurai swords? Do you want your movies to literally make your stomach churn, to force you to warn others nearby who might be more susceptible to motion sickness that they shouldn’t go anywhere near the room where you’re watching? Most people, I think, would say, “Um… no.” But I saw the trailer for Hardcore Henry, and thought, “Oh yeah. That’s definitely what I want.” So I’m proud. Proud of myself for making such a bold choice to watch this intense narrative shot entirely from the first person, and proud of the creators for having the drive to create this unique and pulse-pounding action film. I’m glad I live in an era where Hardocre Henry is possible.
The film is the third entry in the subgenre of action that I classified after watching Crank as “chaos.” No stunt is too absurd, no violence too extreme for their story, and the number one rule is that there is no respite. The movie delivers on its intensity during literally every minute. You might have been laughing harder at the little moments where Henry does things like wipe his shoes off on a doormat if you weren’t busy catching your breath. And mostly that’s a good thing - if you can stomach it. It’s not an easy movie to watch. Jarring just doesn’t quite say it when you’re talking about getting hit by a bus and knocked off an overpass onto concrete from the first person. At the same time though, such incidents make it that much more satisfying when the same first person character, whose eyes through which you’re seeing everything unfold, gets his bloody revenge on the people that beat him up. And it’s always been cool watching these action stunts, things like a motorcycle ripping through and out of a van speeding down the highway, so it does take it up a notch when you’re on that motorcycle.
That, believe it or not, was what I expected though. That’s why I wanted to watch the movie from the moment I saw it advertised. What I didn’t expect was for it to have such a functional narrative. It’s not half bad! There’s a sci-fi premise involving both cybernetics and artificial avatars that, while not scientifically explained at all, meshes fairly nicely with the conflict. The protagonist and the antagonist’s motivations mostly make sense, even if they’re a little cliche. And Sharlto Copley gets to act alongside his favorite acting partner: Sharlto Copley, and that’s pretty entertaining. The first iteration of him has the best line in the film, but a lot of them are good. And there is even some great thematic work at play. The notion that Henry is such a generic name that you, the viewer, could be the Henry in the narrative really works, waking up with no knowledge of why you’re there and a whole host of crazy problems including missing limbs and low power supply. And the first time you see Henry’s reflection perfectly coincides with when he, as a character, gains his identity.
“It’s a little Pinky and the Brainy actually.”
My issue with the film was that a few of the plot points didn’t connect very well at all. The twist, in hindsight, just makes the evil antagonist trying to raise an army of super-soldiers from the dead to take over the world seem a little foolish. There was no need for so much trickery of Henry with the powers and resources he had. It’s a little Pinky and the Brainy actually. And worse is the fact that he has some never-explained and largely inconsistent telekinesis that is a sci-fi premise all on its own and doesn’t combine well at all with the hardcore cyborg super-soldier concept at all. Maybe I’m in the small subset of people that want to watch a man semi-decapitate another using his own cybernetic optic nerve and yet will also care about the thematic complexities of a first-person narrative and the internal consistencies of telekinetic villains, but regardless, that’s the subset I’m in. And the film could have been a little bit better had it worked on such details and worked out such problems.
Still though, this is great stuff. Horrific, but great. So take a dramamine, buckle yourself into your chair, and embrace the utter chaos Hardcore Henry provides. Well, if you’re into that kind of thing. If not hopefully they make movies in this first-person video-gamey form in other genres. Horror? Beast horror? Project X-style comedy? Can’t see it working as a drama really. No one wants to laboriously walk through the plot of The Good Shepherd but through the eyes of the spy. Biopic?! There’s a million-dollar idea. “Strap in and witness the never-ending thrills of living a day behind the eyes of Calvin Coolidge!”