Review of Assassins (1995) by Patrick E — 16 Aug 2010

Assassins is a run of the mill action thriller that follows the same tired routine that we have all seen countless times before, even including the twist at the end. At 132 minutes it is far too long for a film of this type but luckily director Richard Donner is a veteran of the genre and manages to make a largely entertaining film despite its length.

Sly Stallone plays an old assassin called Rath who is looking to do one more job before getting out of the game. Unfortunately for him, a younger assassin (Antonio Banderas) keeps beating him to his mark and it slowly becomes apparent that his contractor is double crossing him. With the help of one of his old marks that he decided not to kill, Rath must face off against the younger assassin before getting his money and retiring from the game for good.

There is nothing particularly wrong with the plot, yes it's largely unoriginal but still has the basis to provide plenty of entertainment. The problem here is the ridiculous running time; it's just far too long. Too many of the scenes are needlessly dragged out leading to serious pacing issues and occasional boredom which is unforgivable for an action thriller. The next problem lies with the character of Rath who is a cold blooded killer at the start of the film but suddenly and inexplicably has a change of heart and decides to befriend one of his marks instead. This is a very hard plot development to swallow and it's obvious that the only reason it was included was to allow the viewer to feel some sort of empathy towards Rath. Despite these issues there is entertainment to be found here. Banderas is wonderfully over the top as the younger assassin and the action is quite good when it comes. The films climax, before the poor twist, is quite tense and by far the most interesting part of the film. Sadly though it's just too slow moving with never allows the viewer to really get into the film. If Donner had cut down the running time by half an hour he would have had a great thriller on his hands, as it is he has a good one but one that's simply not thrilling enough.

Assassins is a good film, it has some interesting characters and some tense scenes. Sadly though it's let down by being far too long, having a poor final twist and a strange character turn from our main assassin. It's worth a watch but be prepared for a long one.