Hardcore Henry is the video game movie we’ve been waiting for
Hardcore Henry started out as a wild little Indiegogo project way back in 2014, originally titled Hardcore, and now it’s secured distribution and finally made its way to theaters. I’ve watched this ambitious little monster since the Indigogo project was in the funding stages, and I managed to catch an early screening of Hardcore Henry just before it hit theaters last week. It’s been kind of exciting seeing a movie grow and evolve to widespread release, and I couldn’t resist writing up a review.
Hardcore Henry is wildly entertaining (for the right crowd), more than a little jarring, super violent, and surprisingly hilarious. It’s probably the best Universal Soldier remake we can ever hope for, and you can read my review of the movie after the jump.
While I’d told myself I would catch Hardcore Henry at some point after its release, when I got a random e-mail for an advanced STX screening I adjusted a short vacation and made sure to catch the movie. What I expected to be a small arthouse showing turned into a college campus auditorium filled to the brim with restless, hooting coeds enjoying themselves before the movie even started. No kidding, I saw a small group carry in a sandwich platter they immediately dug into, and I knew I was part of an audience that was perfect for Hardcore Henry.
And that’s the thing about this movie. It’s made very specifically for a particular audience, pointedly the Mountain Dew drinking, Call of Duty playing, mostly male crowd, and for those individuals Hardcore Henry is sure to be a home run. For the mainstream audience, and as a vehicle that ushers in a strong new genre of first-person filmmaking, the movie is most likely a false messiah. The filmmaking style is far too jarring (imagine shaky cam turned up to 11), and storytelling potential far too flimsy to cement a genre. That said, there’s a good chance we’ll see one or two copycats trying to piggyback on director Iilya Naishuller‘s now signature aesthetic just like a few directors jumped on the Paranormal Activity bandwagon for a quick buck.
Hardcore Henry is balls-to-the-wall action that gives Mad Max: Fury Road a run for its money in terms of adrenaline junky moments, and there are some pretty inventive moments indeed. To give you a taste of the film’s hyper violent flavor, the stylized opening credits scene/intro features slow-motion snippets of gunshot wounds, axe hackings, and brutal stabbings. Before the movie even begins, we see a fairly convincing slow-mo shot of a long serrated knife punching through some hapless soul’s jugular, and it was enough to get my auditorium audience groaning. Hardcore Henry only continues to accelerate the innovative kills and cringe-inducing injuries all the way through to the final climactic rooftop battle. It’s a bloody, foul-mouthed romp through a live-action video game, and it’s hard R material for sure. Parents going into this expecting something lighter for their pre-teen boys might get a surprise, so keep that in mind if you haven’t seen the movie yet.
As far as filmmaking and sound design go, the movie uses its selling points (first-person perspective and non-stop action) to its advantage. Some of the most entertaining, heart rate spiking video game moments usually pump up the bass and let the player go a little crazy, and if it’s not clear already Hardcore Henry is one long extended video game action beat. The soundtrack stands out as pulse-pumping and playful throughout, which was a nice touch and complemented most of the action really well. Even a comedic moment involving a horse and an iconic horse riding song seemed to fit perfectly. Sound design excelled in each landed punch, stab, and gunshot wound, and there were plenty to accentuate with juicy blood splatters and crunchy broken bones. Truly brutal stuff reminiscent of The Raid: Redemption and John Wick.
I can imagine a lot of choreography and prep went into each scene, and I’ve seen the camera rig strapped to the shoulders of the stunt guys/camera man, but the camera movement and first-person perspective don’t really lend themselves well to Roger Deakinsesque cinematography. In fact, there’s more than a few intriguing set pieces that would have been fun to take a closer look at, but we’re whipping around and jumping all over the place too quickly to really take it all in. Even with a few slowed down moments, an hour and a half of head-spinning camera shaking can be overwhelming. I was really expecting (almost prepping for) motion sickness going in, but I was far enough back I managed only a slight discomfort at times. Sitting front and center would have been too much for me, and the selling point of the movie, that first-person perspective, is also one of the main reasons Hardcore Henry will have a hard time resonating with wider audiences. I bet watching this thing on something like the Oculus Rift would be wild!
It’s hard to steer away from the video game comparison, and if you’re expecting much more than that from Hardcore Henry you may be aiming a bit high. With the territory comes often laughable dialogue, an unfortunate scene of poor CGI explosions, a damsel in distress with ulterior motives, a plot that borrows liberally from other properties, an over-the-top science fiction villain who quips lines like “What a sweet moment. If I had this with my tea I wouldn’t need sugar.” without a second thought, and even a difficult-to-kill protagonist who doesn’t speak. It hits all the macho man, bullet biting video game checkboxes, which both works for and works against the movie. There’s an audience that’s going to absolutely love Hardcore Henry for what it is, and it’s those people who will most likely coax Hardcore Henry 2 or a similar project out of Naishuller. The fact that the movie was crowd funded into wide theatrical release shows us there are fans out there.
While I wasn’t completely sold by all the elements supporting Hardcore Henry, I was an avid fan of everything Sharlto Copley did in this movie. He seemed to be having a blast from start to finish, and I’d be doing him a disservice if I didn’t mention his character Jimmy. Jimmy is just fun. Every time he pops his head up and spouts out a string of profanities or brandishes a combination of weapons, Jimmy had the audience and myself cracking up. He’s not only funny, he’s really the only thread holding the thin plot together, and Copley’s character provides the moral backbone as well as most of the comic relief throughout. Without Jimmy, Hardcore Henry wouldn’t have been half the movie it is.
So, if the idea of a non-stop, possibly head spin-inducing, live-action video game sounds appealing, definitely give Hardcore Henry a shot. If everything above makes you shake your head at the direction movies are going and the thought of 90 minutes of shaky cam makes you nauseous, maybe give Hardcore Henry a pass. While I wouldn’t consider the movie as derivative or grating to a fault as Jonathan Pile over at Empire, I also won’t gush over it like a lot of the hardcore fans of the film seem to be doing. Some people are going to love it, and some people are going to hate it. It’s inevitable, especially with a movie as ambitious, outrageous, and absurd as Hardcore Henry.
Here’s some fun behind the scenes footage to show you just how all those crazy stunts were pulled off: