Review of Hardcore Henry (2015) by Jimmy K — 21 Apr 2016

Hardcore henry is not a movie you watch because you want to think. That is apparent from the outset.

Ilya Naishuller recognizes that the concept of a first-person film is not one suited (at least to the audiences of today) for emotional drama. This is a style suited best for one thing: intensity. And, to be honest, Hardcore Henry delivers on that front at almost every turn.

The film suffers from a lack of non-sexualized female characters - an omission which sets it behind its action-genre brethren like Mad Max: Fury Road - but does manage to include a handful of badass women. Unnecessary female nudity is commonplace, however, which limits, to an extent, its audience. Not gonna lie, though - I usually didn't mind.

Unlike many films, Hardcore Henry does not shy away from violent female deaths (though they are usually offscreen), so at least its moving in the right direction (on a side note, I recognize that killing women in violent ways as a feminist ideal in film is an odd concept, but one must remember that if men are not precious enough to keep away from gore, then a feminist's opinion must be that women are not either).

As far as violence is concerned, the film consistently ups the ante of gross, extreme imagery without ever stooping to the level of, say, the Saw sequels. That concept of escalation bleeds (ha!) over into the action scenes as well.

The action in Hardcore Henry is the driving force of the film, and the story respects that in many ways. While the final fight scene is not as fast-paced as one would hope, it is still quite intense. The way the film is shot makes even the most generic gunfight seems way more intense; I haven't enjoyed a simple movie shootout this much in a long, long time.

The ridiculousness factor complements the insanity of the film quite nicely - you can tell the filmmakers were having just as much fun making it as you are watching it. Drawing inspiration from films like Crank and Gamer, the movie doesn't linger too long on its climax and makes sure to punish the viewer for getting up to use the bathroom at any point. There is even a scene shot as a wonderful homage to Gamer - you can really tell Naishuller respects the action genre just as much as he likes to mock it.

This film recognizes the limitation of its style and embraces those weaknesses by not even trying to fix its flaws. Instead, it amplifies its strengths to the nth degree and delivers one hell of a ride. All of this is not even mentioning the transcendently raucous Sharlto Copley, who is arguably having more fun than even the audience.

Silly, imperfect, ridiculously over-the-top, and fun as hell, I'd give Hardcore Henry a 3.7 out of 5.