Hardcore Henry (2016)

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nHardcore Henry (2016)

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nDirector: Ilya Naishuller

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nCast: Sharlto Copley

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nHardcore Henry is an amazing movie in many ways; first off,nlet’s start this out by saying that this film was partially funded by annIndiegogo campaign, Indiegogo is a crowd funding website. For those of you whondon’t know what crowd funding is, well, basically these are websites in whichnyou can promote your project. You post a target amount that you want to reachnand if people like it, they will give you their money in order for you toncomplete your dream project. Once you reach your desired budget, the site keepsna small percent, and you keep the rest to complete your project. A lot of filmsnhave been funded this way. The nazi zombie movie Iron Sky (2012) and RobnZombies 31 (2016) come to mind. Well, Hardcore Henry was the dream project ofnIlya Naishuller, the film’s director. Before this, he’d only directed musicnvideos for his band ‘Biting Elbows’, which were shot in a similar fashion. So impressivelynenough; this is Naishuller’s first feature film. It’s groundbreaking in somenways, while repetitive in others, either way you won’t be able to stop watchingnit.
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nThis is the story of Henry, a guy who wakes up with nonmemory of who he might have been. All he knows is that someone is always chasingnhim and trying to kill him and that these same people have stolen his wifenaway, so he has to save her. The innovative element of the film is that it’snall told from the first person perspective. Sure other films have had firstnperson view segments, but this film is entirely told this way, so basically, wenare Henry, we are running and jumping and shooting. If you’re a fan of firstnperson shooters, you will absolutely love this movie. If on the other handnyou’re the kind of person who gets dizzy or nauseous watching this type ofnpoint of view, don’t bother, because it goes on for the whole film. But, if youncan take this sort of thing, you’re in for a trip!
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nHardcore Henry reminded me of Robocop (1987)because it’snabout a cyborg trying to remember who he used to be, who he loved, so it’s anfilm in which the main character has an identity crisis. In terms of pacing, itnreminded me also of the frenetic nonstop pace of Crank (2006) and Crank 2: HighnVoltage (2009), if you haven’t seen either of these films, well, basically theynare nonstop action fests in which something crazy happens every five seconds innwhich reality doesn’t really apply. It’s exaggerated action, like that of ancomic book or sci-fi film. Hardcore Henry is this type of film, it’s none stopninsanity on top of insanity. The cool thing is that when crazy shit happens,nyou feel it’s happening to you. I dug this element of it, which is what Inpersonally love about first person shooters; you feel things more intenselynthen on third person games, or watching a regular movie.
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nSharlto Copley steals the show on this one because even thoughnHenry is the main character, we never see him, we ARE him. Who we do see mostnof the time is Sharlto Copley who plays this crazy scientist who clonesnhimself, so we see different versions of him pop up all throughout the film,neach one crazier than the next! This one’s a giant coke head, that one smokesnweed, that one is a homeless person and so on. It’s pretty amusing, so it’snbasically Sharlto Copley’s show here. But aside from Copley, the real star ofnthe film is the style in which it was made. The movie just keeps blowing younaway with the way things were shot. I kept asking myself how the hell they shotnsome of the scenes! Actually, there’s this one moment in the film, which to menwas the apex of the whole thing where I just had to clap, I almost stood up andnscreamed in movie buff delight at this amazing sequence. It’s towards the finale;nyou’ll know it when you see it because you’ll be blown away. Does it have anynflaws? Well, in this type of film I’m not exactly looking for depth ornanything, for the kind of film it is, we get exactly what we’re supposed tonget. You never get bored, you get cool effects, none stop action and effects.nMy only gripe was maybe that there’s so much shooting going on that at onenpoint it feels repetitive. But that quickly dissipates when we go to the nextnawesome shot. Final word is, I recommend Hardcore Henry. It’s groundbreakingnstuff because no film has ever been done entirely in first person, and not onlynthat, the filmmakers truly exploited this angle of the film. They really putnHenry in some crazy situations where you get the most out of the whole firstnperson thing. Hardcore Henry is worth going to the movies to see, it was a realnadrenaline infused surprise.

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