Hardcore Henry starts off with Henry waking up after some sort of accident, he has lost his memory and just wants to regain who he was. That is until all hell breaks loose and he is thrown into a nonstop journey through the streets of Russia.
Sounds like a video game. Good, because that is exactly what you get. Let me guess, now you're probably thinking, "I love doing nothing while watching my friend play that first person shooter game." Well, me neither. Hardcore Henry does definitely feel like watching someone else play a video game, but it is probably the best game I've ever watched. Hardcore Henry does many things right and somehow only fails in a few small forgettable aspects.
The Good:
The first thing you'll notice is the violence and action. The camera literally front and center of everything that is going on. Henry uses his hands to do everything from shoot people in the head to strangle someone with his bare hands, and you see every bloody, gruesome second of it. To go along with the violence is the action. From falling, running, riding in a car, it is all fantastic. The trailer shows a gun fight on a highway. It is truly nothing short of amazing. It is a don't blink moment as you are taken on an amazing action-packed journey.
Next, the music. I am admittedly not very much into music. I often don't feel that music does much to elevate or lower the quality of a movie. Hardcore Henry uses almost every genre of music from punk rock and metal to disco and classical. There are also moments when the music will cut to silence with the purpose to draw attention to something else. It is done perfectly and often comically.
Speaking of comedy, Hardcore Henry is surprisingly funny. I wouldn't say it is laugh out loud funny, but there are definite quick throw away gags that constantly would bring a smile to my face.
Sharlto Copley (District 9, Elysium) is also pretty terrific. Just like in District 9, he carries this movie as Henry's chauffeur through the story. Almost every word he says is captivating and entertaining.
The Ehh:
All of these things elevate the movie to a level that is truly enjoyable. However, there are a few things that do hurt the movie.
Firstly, the editing. The thing about life or a video game is there a very few moments where time skips. Occasionally Hardcore Henry will get knocked out or have his vision flicker, but sometimes there are just straight cuts in time without any physical purpose. This is done to shorten up travel time to different locations, but it kind of looses a little emphasis when the film is shot in first person and is supposed to mimic a persons viewpoint.
The next subpar moments in the film are when the movie tries to develop exposition. Sharlto Copley is good at many things, but giving numerous lines of dialog isn't one of them in this movie. Luckily these scenes are relatively short and the action picks up quickly afterwards.
The last is the dizziness and confusion. The camera is so close to the action and moves so quickly that I sometimes found myself becoming slightly dizzy or not understanding everything that was going on. Usually when these moments happened there was so much else going on that I quickly moved on and forgot about what was confusing me. So although I give this down point a pass, it could be a bigger deterrent for others.
The Ugh-ly:
There was nothing in this movie that I would consider ugh-ly. The only thing that might move people to not seeing it is the R rating. And it is a hard R, so if that is a concern, definitely don't see Hardcore Henry.
Overview:
Although I did enjoy this movie very much, the hard R rating is not for everyone. Therefore, there are two types of people that I would recommend to see Hardcore Henry:
1) The action enthusiast. It is truly almost completely nonstop. The few moments when there is boring exposition it is usually soon interrupted with another fight seen. If you love action. Definitely see it.
2) The movie enthusiast. It is truly a spectacle to see an entire movie from the perspective of Henry. The few times it has been attempted, like during the climax of Doom (2005), it failed miserably and was just a cheesy gimmick. Hardcore Henry is anything but a gimmick. It is a true masterpiece to behold.
Grade: See in Theaters
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