MOVIE REVIEW – Hardcore Henry is a film that is a video game with lots of screen shake… there that’s the movie. Alright, I know that is not much but, to be honest, there’s not much else how I can sum up the movie.

 

The plot is pretty basic, you „aka” Henry must go on a wild goose chase on the streets of Moscow to defeat the main villain Akan, who has enormous powers. The beginning tutorial section is neat, as your wife provides some exposition as to who are you and what happened, you test out your reflexes, and sight. However, not much time is allowed to rest, as the Russian Sith Lord enters the airship, and slaughters everyone, with only a nick of time, you and your lovely wife make it out of there.

From that point the movie’s plot is a goose cheese, Henry keeps trying to save his wife while Akan at the last minute snatches her away. It is an entertaining story, but a rather bland one. Not only that but besides the obvious jokes the game does feel like a video game (a rather mediocre video game).

Lights, effects… aaaaannnnnd shaky camera!

So while the story is not that great, the creators of the movie probably did some neat stuff with this whole First-Person experience right? Meh kind of, the entire gimmick is great when it comes to shooting scenes, but the melee combat parts will make you sick. The problem is that while the idea of a First Person view movie sounds great, it can fail if the director is clueless. Sadly, our dear Russian friends were just that, and the fist fights end up leaving your eyes strained trying to figure out what the hell happened.

There are some hints of brilliance in this movie; there’s an extended shootout scene in the middle of the movie that is done cleverly, and has some of the best jokes. It is well shot, choreographed, and brutal regarding visuals. Too bad we only have this one long scene of pure awesomeness while the rest are somewhat okay, or just downright horrible. The horrible ones where the director tries to film melee combat, but for some reason he was able to direct pretty fun shootouts against the mercenaries.

All the fun is Jimmy

The highlight of the movie is not the action scenes or the visuals, but one man called Jimmy played by Sharlto Copley. He plays „every” Jimmy in the film, and if for one reason you need to see a movie is because of Jimmy. He is such a varied personality and makes the whole movie more fun. He takes on multiple roles, all of them more charming and fun. Sadly, most of his performances end with a bang and blood.

Should you play it?

Well, it depends on how good your eyesight is. If you struggle against the shaky cam, I would advise skipping this movie, and maybe you should play a video game. If you, however, are okay with the shakycam, and with the thin as hell plot by all means go and have fun. However, do not expect a good action movie even then, as it is just a mediocre movie (or a video game depends on how you look at this film).

-Dante-