Review: 'Hardcore Henry' Can Be A First Person Mess

John Allegretti ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Give a thirteen-year-old boy a GoPro with unlimited resources and you get Hardcore Henry; a crazy action film that also doubles as an acting resume for Sharlto Copley. Copley is first introduced as an gun-toting, mullet-wearing Australian (basically Hugh Jackman from Chappie) who is promptly killed off by a sniper. Copley then comes back in the next scene as an eccentric homeless man. This keeps happening until you begin to lose count of how many characters Copley is playing.
The big selling point that Hardcore Henry has going for it is that it’s done entirely from the point-of-view of Henry, a guy who wakes up in a laboratory with no memory of his past. A woman, Estelle (Haley Bennett) claiming to be his wife fits Henry with apple-crushing cybernetic enhancements and a cute wedding ring. But the couple are then interrupted by Akan (Danila Kozlovsky), a sadistic warlord with telekinetic powers. Why does he have these insane powers? The movie never bothers to explain, but it certainly adds tension to all of his scenes. Henry is able to escape from Akan and from there the film disintegrates into action scene after action scene, with a few great twists peppered in for good measure.

The characters of Hardcore Henry are also just as thin as the plot. Henry is a guy who’s main flaw is not having the guts to beat people up (as explained by Tim Roth in a quick cameo). Besides Estelle, the only other women in the film are a harem of identical strippers and two leather-clad warriors that look like something out of Sucker Punch. Besides underwritten female characters, Hardcore Henry also stumbles in its action sequences. The movie throws plenty of explosions and bullets at us, but most of the action is ruined by bad pacing. Everything goes by so fast that it’s difficult to process all the cool stuff happening around Henry. The film’s biggest strength, however, is that it never forgets to have a sense of humor. For every brutal death the film also delivers a great laugh. At one point the movie takes a break from all the action to deliver a dance scene that rivals last year’s Ex Machina.
Many people have been comparing Hardcore Henry to a video game, but it’s closer to a found footage movie. As the film goes on it becomes apparent that what’s being shown is a recording of Henry’s POV. And that isn’t the only experimental gag Hardcore Henry has. When Henry first wakes up the screen is split into two POVs, each side a different eye. There’s also a moment when Sharlto Copley is arguing with one of the Sucker Punch girls in angry Russian, and the subtitles at the bottom of the screen start piling on top of each other. In the end, Hardcore Henry is memorable not because of its crazy action sequences, but the insane sense of humor it carries.
Overall Grade: C
Watch The Trailer: 
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96EChBYVFhU[/embedyt]