BluRay Review: Hardcore Henry
When I first heard about Hardcore Henry I thought it was a brilliant but crazy idea. I mean, who in their right mind would shoot an action film entirely in first person mode? That’s just insane. (and apparently, so totally Russian). But batshit brilliant as well, cause, well, you know, everyone loves playing first person shooter video games, or watching endless GoPro youtube videos. Right.
Well maybe it’s not quite time to mainstream first person points of view into Hollywood Blockbusters quite yet. Lucky for Hardcore Henry, he is anything but mainstream, and thus not targeted at a mainstream audience. Be warned, if you felt motion sickness watching Cloverfield, you’re gonna puke so much you’ll not only clear out your stomach but your rectum ampulla as well.
And it’s violent in the extreme as well.
You have been warned.
Oh the story-line? You want to know about the story-line?
Well the story-line doesn’t really matter because this is a film about style and buckets of blood, but ok, the story.
You – ok, you gotta be ok with this, as with all first person games, a first person film puts you in the lead role – so you ARE Henry. You’ve just been woken up by your wife, and have discovered that you are part of some experiment and you have robotic arms and legs as well as a heart powered by a small nuclear reactor (or something, details are not important in this film). Once you escape the lab high in the sky, your wife is kidnapped by the main bad guy, and from then on, it’s a race to try and save your wife and defeat the bad guy and his plans for world domination. Cue lots of violence, parkour and naked Russian girls.
Oh and blood. Lots and lots of blood. And a decent splash of humour.
But mostly balls to the wall, over the top action that will have you both glued to the screen and nauseated and giggly with excitement ALL AT THE SAME TIME. It’s plain bloody brilliant.
Rating: R18 Graphic violence, drug use, offensive language & sexual material.
FILMGUIDE rating:
