Film review: Hardcore Henry (violence, gore and motion sickness)

Wow  :-O

Well… I really don’t know how to describe this one. It’s a low-budget action movie, short on plot, big on a set pieces. It has something to do with an albino meglomaniac (why do albinos get such bad press in these films?) and a cyborg army constructed from resurrected corpses. I sort of lost the thread early on, but it was either hang on to it or hang on to my lunch, and since the local cineplex has just had new seats fitted…

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Hardcore Henry’s USP is that it is shot entirely from a first-person viewpoint. It’s a lot like playing Call of Duty, only much louder. You’re in the driver’s seat (or behind the bazooka, or holding the combat knife or whatever) through the whole movie, and believe me it’s an amazing experience. The director aimed to rack up the highest body count in cinematic history, and I think he may have succeeded: extras are shot, butchered, stabbed, run over, blown up, thrown off buildings… The sequences are incredible (though not suitable for the squeamish). And it was genuinely funny, though I’m not sure why this surprised me; a film like this can’t take itself too seriously.

Hardcore Henry isn’t going to pick up any Oscars, but if you feel like an action movie that entertains without taxing the brain, then take Henry for a spin… but don’t give him anything sharp.

Seven out of ten.

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