Certainly one of the most unique action films in recent memory, Ilya Naishuller’s Hardcore Henry is essentially a live-action first person shooter. The film is told from Henry’s perspective, a man who is brought back to life in a lab with no memory of who he is only to have missing limbs replaced with some robotic body parts by his scientist wife. Shortly after, the lab is attacked and Henry’s wife (Haley Bennett) is kidnapped. The remainder of the film is spent with Henry running from the guys who kidnapped his wife but also tracking down the main baddie who kidnapped her in the first place. To accomplish this, he teams up with a mysterious guy named Jimmy (Sharlto Copley) who is the only one that’s able to help Henry and attempt to keep him alive long enough to accomplish his mission.
Hardcore Henry is a very simple movie that plays out just like a FPS video game, which is good and bad. The reason it’s good is because it’s balls to the wall action in all the ways you’d want it to be. It’s bat-shit crazy and has a fun sci-fi element that keeps you engaged and allows for ridiculous feats to be accomplished. At the same time, it provides a bit of humor with the mysterious Jimmy character who acts as your side-kick and guide throughout the film, similar to a video game.
Now, the reason it’s bad depends on your threshold for shaky cam. The difference between a movie and a video game is that in a game you can render the graphics clearly, avoiding serious motion blur when in a high intense shootout. With a movie, that rarely exists so any action you get from a first person perspective is going to be rocky and all over the place. Hardcore Henry is a movie that thrives on constant action and constantly being on the go and, as such, for about 90% of the film the camera is moving quickly, you’re flying around everywhere as Henry battles his foes or is on the move. It’s tolerable because the movie can be pretty fun, but it can also be exhausting and any break in movement is welcomed with more than open arms for your head. The constant barrage of shaky cam, which I’m generally ok with, felt like too much.
Hardcore Henry is an experience. It’s a unique action film in that it’s the only I know shot entirely from first person POV. It’s also a film that deserves to be seen by anyone that’s every loved playing a FPS or seriously loves violent action movies. That being said, it will be a movie that I’ll probably forget about in a year or two. It wasn’t that memorable and because of the exhaustive nature of the shaky cam it isn’t a film I’d ever want to watch again. I praise Hardcore Henry for what it is but unless your an adamant gamer or someone seeking out an original film approach (which we should all do), you can probably skip this one.
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