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jmovies
Let's Call It A Bromance
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 7:22 pm Posts: 12333
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Hardcore Henry
Hardcore HenryQuote: Hardcore Henry (also known simply as Hardcore) is a 2015 Russian-American science fiction action film written and directed by Ilya Naishuller. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky, Haley Bennett, and Tim Roth. The film was released theatrically by STX Entertainment on April 8, 2016.
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Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:07 am |
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publicenemy#1
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:25 am Posts: 18884 Location: San Diego
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Re: Hardcore Henry
Sharlto Copley added a much needed strong presence to this film. Overall it's not bad but I didn't find myself engaged with this perspective. My friends raved about how it feels like an ode to all these videogames but I was wondering if a richer world could've been created without the POV.
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Fri Apr 08, 2016 4:10 am |
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Jmart
Superman: The Movie
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:47 am Posts: 21152 Location: Massachusetts
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Re: Hardcore Henry
It all depends on how long can you stand the gimmick. I lasted about 15 minutes.
I can appreciate the amount of skill, hard work, and imagination that went into this, but there's a reason why you haven't seen a movie like this and that's because you can pretty much replicate the experience at home with a video game. As a movie, at least in the case with Hardcore Henry (though I had a similar reaction to Doom), I just got bored rather quickly. And the gore's there really for the sake of having gore in the movie. It's pointless.
I was reading some of the reviews on Flixster and one reviewer pointed out (and I'm paraphrasing) that as a film it's pretty thin, but as a technical exercise it's interesting. No offense to that reviewer, but 95 minutes as a technical exercise doesn't work. You need at least a few minutes of what makes a film (a little more than the bare bones of what makes up character development) thrown in there as well.
To put it kind of plainly, outside of Sharlto Copley who gives it his all, I kinda hated it.
* (D)
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Fri Apr 08, 2016 7:59 pm |
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Rev
Romosexual!
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 3:06 am Posts: 32107 Location: the last free city
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Re: Hardcore Henry
Damn........thx Jmart. I'll wait till it's on Netflix to give it a look
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Fri Apr 08, 2016 8:03 pm |
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Dr. Lecter
You must have big rats
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 4:28 pm Posts: 92093 Location: Bonn, Germany
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Re: Hardcore Henry
I loved it. Rev, check it out.
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Sat Apr 09, 2016 5:28 am |
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tree and a half
Cream of the Crop
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 11:38 am Posts: 2084
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Re: Hardcore Henry
Hardcore Henry is a full throttle editing exercise in first person point of view. It doesn't quite reach the ecstatic heights of Crank, but HH still provides an invigorating little splash of battery acid to the face. *B+*
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Sat Apr 09, 2016 1:10 pm |
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David
Pure Phase
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:33 am Posts: 34865 Location: Maryland
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Re: Hardcore Henry
An action-movie simulation of a video game, Hardcore Henry proves exhausting and puerile rather than exhilarating, and the sole card up its sleeve—a feature-length first-person perspective—wears thin fast. The film opens with the title character, mute and played by camera-wielding stuntmen, coming to in a laboratory in an airship above Moscow. He has no memory, but a female scientist (Haley Bennett) says she is his wife. She reveals she and her partners have transformed him into a type of Six Million Dollar Man, a supercharged human-robot hybrid programmed for survival and ass kicking. Before long, the base is breached by a power-mad telekinetic albino (Danila Kozlovsky) and his henchmen, inciting a whirlwind chase which puts Henry's new abilities to the test. The plot is nonsense—the antagonist in particular is a medley of ambiguities and clichés, and the idea of the Hero as a Void so everyone in the audience becomes him falls short (zero rooting interest)—but this can be partly forgiven considering the format and genre.
The execution is also very problematic, however. Broadly, I do not doubt the production required ingenuity and skill, but the result is ugly: a disorienting and watery-grey parade of in-your-face perpetual motion. Almost never is the unique presentation utilized to build suspense or illustrate Henry's evolving tactics. The cinematography is never balletic or intricate. The only purpose is speed and head-into-concrete brutality. There are also frequent cuts, dispelling any illusion of real-time urgency. (See the recent German crime drama Victoria for a more impressive technical exercise.) The strychnine-infused cherry on top of the fetid sundae is the film's Putin-era Russian soul, a type of Adidas-wearing, head-shaving cynicism/masculinity/misanthropy/misogyny indicative of co-producer Timur Bekmambetov's worst impulses. And the sole saving grace: a campy performance by South African actor Sharlto Copley as a master of disguise who repeatedly dies gruesome deaths and returns with another, more outlandish avatar, ranging in inspiration from Colonel Blimp to Sid Vicious. His bewigged comic mania is the only pleasant distraction from the mean-spirited, overwrought malaise.
D
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Sat Apr 09, 2016 7:37 pm |
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Jack Sparrow
KJ's Leading Idiot
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:15 pm Posts: 36923
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Re: Hardcore Henry
I am excited to see this movie because the take is different but it was clear from the start that the first person view won't have a lasting effect.
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Sun Apr 10, 2016 12:12 am |
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nghtvsn
Extraordinary
Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:13 pm Posts: 11015 Location: Warren Theatre Oklahoma
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Re: Hardcore Henry
HARDCORE HENRY
Overall, I enjoyed the film. Yes the first person point of view can be trying at times especially when the character is running all over the place but it's also interesting and unique in a way. Would I want to see more films filmed in that perspective. Hell no. I doubt I'll watch this film more than once every five years. I did enjoy the action and the multiple versions of Copley's character. I never figure out how that bad guy had the power he had on people or maybe it had to do with metal. Idk.
Grade - B
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Mon Apr 11, 2016 12:33 pm |
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Jack Sparrow
KJ's Leading Idiot
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:15 pm Posts: 36923
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Re: Hardcore Henry
I finally saw the movie and while it wasn't a perfect movie and the first person viewpoint gets tiring after sometime (I lasted 35 minutes), the different take is interesting. Sharlto Copley carries the movie more than Henry without his multiple personalities this movie would quickly turn into a video game, which essentially happens after the lift scene. The problem here is storyline not sure it has one and I also noticed that the sound effects were lacking. If you are going to see a persons view even without the voice you will hear the breathing, some scenes do capture this but rest of the movie ignores this. The big finale overstays its welcome mostly because its impossible to keep the camera straight with how they shot the movie. This is where the artistry of camera, a must for such a movie, was lacking.
This will obviously be very divisive movie but for action and gore lovers this is a VERY unique take which is enjoyable mostly.
7/10. B-
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Thu Apr 14, 2016 1:29 pm |
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Dil
Forum General
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:48 pm Posts: 8942 Location: Houston, Texas
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Re: Hardcore Henry
Pretty entertaining flick, but it does over stay it's welcome after a while. Loved the ridiculous amount of gore which was mostly practical, but the action sequences were a bit too shaky cam at times, especially in close quarters. Sharlto Copley was fantastic and injected some much needed personality into this film. Didn't care for the villain and I don't get why they had Tim Roth in this only to be really underused. Oh! and Haley Bennett is a total babe.
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Thu Apr 14, 2016 6:37 pm |
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_axiom
The Wall
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:50 am Posts: 16163 Location: Croatia
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Re: Hardcore Henry
* / ***** (F)
I actually thought the trailer was good. But the movie is pretty bad. It's definitely what a movie version of FPS shooter should be, but apparently that doesn't make a good movie. At all. For most of the time it's really hard to eve understand what's going on screen which makes watching this movie pretty tiresome. The ending was cool though.
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Sun Jul 24, 2016 4:31 am |
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Flava'd vs The World
The Kramer
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:36 am Posts: 23806 Location: Classified
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Re: Hardcore Henry
It's a bit too much at times. But the dark sense of humor, mostly brought by Copley's character(s), elevates this from kinda annoying to kinda awesome.
I wouldn't have turned the wife heel at the end. A happy ending would have given this movie more of a reason to exist. As is, it's just a much funnier than expected gimmick.
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Sat Aug 06, 2016 2:51 pm |
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Algren
now we know
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 9:31 pm Posts: 67053
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Hardcore Henry
This is a fast-paced, non-stop, brutal experiment in action cinema. It could almost be called a video-game adaptation, it is that evocative of the style and game-play of a first-person shooter, including a seemingly impossible-to-beat villain that pops in and out as needed. This film is brilliant. I have no idea how they did some of the things they did, but it was all incredibly over-the-top awesome. Does it get tiresome after some time? Well, a bit, but not really. They combat that by increasing the absurdity level with each "level". It starts off with thugs on the street and eventually he's hanging from a helicopter after just taking out a tank crew!
I have little desire to see a sequel (how could they top this?!) but this film is a blast, from beginning to end. Sharlto Copley makes yet another awesome, technically brilliant film. I loved his British army officer character, and the stoned biker. Very well acted, and the beautiful Haley Bennett is a welcome piece of eye candy, but the film's real triumph is its technical departments. Just superb. I have huge appreciation when film actually tries something new, and this was not only new but it flat-out worked.
B+
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Mon Aug 15, 2016 7:32 pm |
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