Hardcore Henry

Rated R for non-stop bloody brutal violence and mayhem, language throughout, sexual content/nudity, and drug use. ___ It's only been five years since Henry was in theaters, and I already feel the need to retrospectively appreciate it as a throwback to the trend of the GoPro videos which YT was fed up with in their day, before they started being replaced by passive YouTubers in the quiet of their homes, and also the end of the era of big video game titles driven by the promise of technological advancement before that market shifted and games started being developed on social platforms. Here we find the usual climbing over buildings (Assassin's Creed, Mirror's Edge), sniper missions (Call of Duty), escaping from unknown snipers (Half-Life), augmentations (Deus Ex, even with a very blatant rip-off of the soundtrack of Human Revolution at the beginning), obstacles you can shoot through, or papers flying around during the gunfights (FEAR). Add to all that the familiar nightmare of falling somewhere you don't actually fall. Hardcore Henry is actually a fan film in the best way imaginable. It's incoherent (tied together, thankfully, by the FP format), doesn't know when to calm down, and just tosses in one idea after another, whereas it carries the film's tricky and thorough choreography all the way through with tremendous effort just for the sheer spectacle of it. Besides, despite his muteness and anonymity, the protagonist is somehow actually quite likeable, and that's only through the way he occasionally gesticulates with his hand, turns his head, and when he knocks a girl down on the stairs waits to see if she's okay, despite having a bunch of evildoers at his back. The shenanigans he comes up with during the action sequences is actually his way of expressing and building character. But I recognize that this may be because I'm a pretty die-hard gamer who would ideally live his entire alternate life somewhere in a fictional universe, and I can tune into that kind of storytelling much more easily. "Take down the proto-baby!" (23/04/2016)

There was always something going on and there were so many ideas, but I still got bored, and quite a lot, unfortunately. It’s basically like the first or second Machete, nothing would have been lost if it had remained as a short. Regardless, the form is interesting and it was the only reason I stuck with it until the end. (25/06/2016)

A mainline adrenaline hit straight to a player’s heart. Memories of Far Cry, GTA, Crysis and other games and others come rushing at you with every minute of the movie. Sharlto Copley’s and his amazing antics drag this movie forward, but the real hero is Naishuller, who pieced the movie together. Great music. A feelgood movie. (06/03/2017)

Hardcore Henry, or how to use a shaky camera to create a stylish piece from the first person point of view, which draws you in and most importantly, and I feel obliged to say this, you see everything clearly, transparently and without any difficulties. Add in the fact that they did not bother at all with any age restrictions, which makes it a clear R rated film. The only thing that is missing to make this film perfect are some cool lines, as Henry during the whole film does not speak at all. Luckily, the acting is saved by Sharlto Copley, who has multiple roles here and moves between them in the blink of an eye. (03/06/2019)

I applaud the idea, admire the technical realization, and criticize the rest. Hardcore Henry is an unimaginably slick and stylish action flick, where some of the opening scenes (especially the free fall in the escape pod) spike the level of the viewer's experience to unprecedented, and you can really say revolutionary, heights, while the optimally set runtime and a lot of black humour, brilliantly provided by the film's best character(s), the outrageously loud Sharlto Copley, are also a hit. But that's where the good stuff ends, as the frantic, B-movie sci-fi story makes no sense, we know absolutely nothing about most of the characters, including the confused Henry, and the vast majority of motives remain unexplained and unfinished. It's simply too much chaos, which can still be excused for the adrenaline-fuelled action scenes, but even pure cinematic entertainment should strive for a more meaningful or at least more atmospheric plot – we can't even worry about Henry, as he's clearly a blend of every invulnerable Hollywood hero in history. And the last criticism is directed to the final long battle, which, instead of a climactic ending, is in my eyes the weakest action set-piece of the film. I did have fun and if I weren't such an opponent of computer games I might not have objected. 65% (29/04/2016)