By Liz Lopez
Rating: C-
I am not a fan of roller coaster rides, but yet the feature film, Hardcore Henry, gives the audience a feeling of being on one huge carnival ride of some sort. It is as if you are mounted on the shoulders of the protagonist that is having some limbs replaced by a woman, Estelle (Haley Bennett), who introduces herself as his wife. No sooner does Henry have all his “parts” functioning, that all hell breaks loose and mercenaries are chasing them.
The mob boss in charge of the never give up project to bring Henry the cyborg down is Akan (Danila Kozlovsky), with certain abilities to stay ahead of him. Fortunately, Henry has help from Jimmy (Sharlto Copley, District 9), who can clone himself and I found his characters amusing. No matter what is thrown at Henry, he is resourceful with whatever is at hand and is not planning on getting caught.
If it is not enough that Henry busts through everything and everyone over and over, Henry takes two syringes full of adrenaline, so this ride would be expected to take off, right? No, not so much, he just kicks more butt and kills everyone lurching toward him.
Hardcore Henry might appeal to gamers as they sit back and enter Jimmy and Henry’s world full of violence, from start to finish. Ultimately, I was left feeling like GAME OVER at the end.
Although the constant onslaught of violence is not appealing to me, I have no doubt there is a huge audience waiting for it to arrive in theaters April 8th after the U. S. premiere in the Headliners category at the SXSW Film Festival.
Source: STX Entertainment