Movie Review: Hardcore Henry

After receiving glowing reviews abroad and at last year's Toronto Film Festival, Russian-produced action film Hardcore Henry has been met with almost-universal scorn by American critics and audiences. The film has been criticized to no end for its lack of a plot and use of first-person perspective. While I completely understand why this movie is getting such a bad reception from the mainstream American moviegoing audience, I can't help but wonder if the people trashing this movie had any idea what they were getting into before they watched it. Is Hardcore Henry driven by a gimmick? No doubt. Is the plot paper-thin and absolutely nonsensical? Hell yes. Did either of these things do anything to bring down the quality of the movie in my eyes? Not in the slightest.

Despite the fact that it received a wide release in over 3,000 theaters opening weekend, Hardcore Henry is very much a niche movie. The film's frantic, first-person camerawork, absurdly over-the-top tone and non-stop graphic violence that pushes the limits of the R rating will alienate an overwhelming majority of audiences. However, if you're a fan of unapologetically insane, self-aware B-action movies like Crank or Shoot Em' Up, odds are that Hardcore Henry will put a big, shit-eating grin on your face. Over the film's 90-minute runtime, writer/director Illya Naishuller manages to redefine the terms "relentless" and "non-stop action". If you exclude the first 10 minutes where the opening credits roll and the premise is being to set into motion, there's hardly a minute of the film where the titular character is not engaging in some sort of combat. Despite the film essentially just being a series of action scenes connected by a very loose plot, Hardcore Henry remarkably never becomes dull. I fully expected the first-person style to grow stale after 20-30 minutes, but the film's wide variety of action scenes and constantly-changing settings kept things exciting throughout. 

The film's chaotic nature and innovative approach to shooting and choreographing action scenes may serve as the film's backbone, but Sharlto Copley (District 9, Chappie) is the film's heart and soul. Copley plays a constantly-respawning avatar with multiple personalities that has to guide the mute Henry in his mission to rescue his kidnapped wife (Hayley Bennett) from the clutches of a telekinetic mercenary(Danila Kozlovsky, who looks like a young, blonde-haired Tommy Wiseau). I won't spoil what these various personas are, but I will say that Copley gets ample time to showcase his knack for unhinged, tongue-in-cheek comedy that he hasn't gotten a chance to display since 2010's The A-Team. Hardcore Henry is an ultraviolent, gleefully deranged gift from the B-action movie gods and I can say with absolute certainty that it will become an instant genre classic.

4/5 Stars