How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 5 October 2015
A movie review of HARDCORE a.k.a. HARDCORE HENRY.Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2015. (For more information, click here.)
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“The good news is you’re going to live awhile. The bad news is, in this case, 20-30 minutes, tops,” Jimmy (Sharlto Copley)
From Tim Roth looking to the camera and seemingly calling the audience a “p*ssy”, sensitivity and good taste are thrown out of the window. Riffing on James Bond, the opening credits are a slow-mo montage. The similarities end there. Instead of shadowy silhouettes of implied death, the bathed in red sequence has bricks to the head, a knife entering and leaving a neck, etc. Coyness absence is the stall-setter for anyone confused by what the title is going to offer: 1980s unashamed movie violence levels.
From Tim Roth looking to the camera and seemingly calling the audience a “p*ssy”, sensitivity and good taste are thrown out of the window. Riffing on James Bond, the opening credits are a slow-mo montage. The similarities end there. Instead of shadowy silhouettes of implied death, the bathed in red sequence has bricks to the head, a knife entering and leaving a neck, etc. Coyness absence is the stall-setter for anyone confused by what the title is going to offer: 1980s unashamed movie violence levels.
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80s high concept is distilled further. The conceit and driving force are ostensibly simple: The entire film shot from the perspective of the lead, first person, like a video game. Shot is the operative word. HARDCORE is not Bergman-esque existential inquisition. Action and more action, and more action, oh, and more action. Combat aficionados will be in heaven, if not for the motion sickness inducing curve of the lens skewing the perspective. The human eye does not view the world like that. Sitting at the back of the auditorium is a must. Enjoyment would have been enhanced had the image been flatter. Contrast how Jonathan Demme made the remake of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.
Post-intro we see the universe from Henry’s perspective as he comes to in a lab. Robotic limbs are added to his left forearm and calf, by a gentle doctor, Estelle (Haley Bennett), who claims to also be his wife. Cyborg iconography has a ROBOCOP (1987) vibe, except sans body horror disgust. We are in a game after all, aren’t we? Memories not yet returned, Henry is far from acclimatisation when the research centre is attacked. Boffins dispatched, the nefarious Akan (Danila Kozlovsky) antagonist is presented. Not only is he psychopathic, he has the superpower of telekinesis. Formidable, yet Henry and Estelle manage to escape in a pod. You see, the facility is a blimp. As they descend (into Russia?), the fantastic visual effects are evinced. Supposedly requiring crowdfunding assistance, for post-production, gives the result even more kudos.
On the ground, ambushed, Estelle kidnapped, Henry has two raisons d’être:
- Keep alive, and
- Rescue his wife.
The former is the opposite of easy, difficulty mode is not novice, as an endless supply of bad guys are (sometimes literally) chucked at him. Rather than be repetitive, the mayhem is endlessly inventive and funny. Humour, and the dungeon master-style guide, comes largely in the form of Sharlto Copley’s Jimmy, who keeps getting killed. Mildly bewildering until you realise Jimmy is being cloned with different personalities. There’s even a musical interlude, as the Jimmys perform a well-choreographed dance and song number.
Narrow-mindedness, e.g. gratuitous female nudity, and zero substance, trip the project up. Some kind of MAD MAX-like observations, for example, would not have slowed the pace. Gravitas is noticeably missing. That aside, those searching for an almost pure form of cinematic adrenaline look no further.
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