Unique action sequences? Check. Drugs, boobs, blood? Plenty! Off-putting, dated, derogatory dialogue? Almost every other sentence!
“What are you, a pussy?”
“Hardcore Henry” puts its cards on the table from the very first line.
If you are bothered by a story about an amnesiac cyborg whose only memory is his father (Tim Roth) asking the aforementioned question, “Hardcore Henry” isn't for you. As far as bad-taste action-adventure goes it is certainly watchable, if only for its creative use of first-person perspective.
Henry wakes up on an operating table. His wife, Estelle (Haley Bennett), is the only person in the room. She reminds him they are married, that she loves him. She provides him with cybernetic limbs. As she teaches him to walk they are violently interrupted by Akan (Danila Kozlovsky), a telekinetic madman. Akan kidnaps Estelle; Henry escapes and is rescued by Jimmy (Sharlto Copley), a mysterious and eccentric stranger who wants to help defeat Akan. From that point on, the movie is 90 straight minutes of chaos. Henry kills a lot of people, occasionally in a hardcore manner.
The cast is a mixed bag. Copley is a delight as always,and he gets to play dress-up throughout the movie as different versions of Jimmy (you'll understand). He's the real star of the movie. I love him to death. However, Kozlovsky is terrible and ruins every scene in which he appears. It's a shame when the villain stops a movie cold, but by the end he is so irritating that even his gory fate is inadequate. Tim Roth appears in flashbacks, and Bennett has a seriously thankless role. You, dear viewer, play Henry.
“Hardcore Henry” is written and directed by Ilya Naishuller, who filmed the movie with a Go-Pro. Henry himself is silent, a method used in most video games to enhance the player's sense that they are their character. Copley provides most of the exposition, dialogue and humor for the viewer. I'm pleased to report that the first-person perspective is never nauseating, or as boring as watching someone else play a video game. But it has its limits because the first-person perspective inherently detaches the viewer. Henry has no face, no way of expressing emotional feedback. He gets shot, stabbed, beaten up; it never registers because we have no way of feeling what Henry feels.
Video games have worked for decades to enhance the immersion of a player by using visual feedback (like a screen turning red when the player is hurt) behavioral feedback (other characters reacting to player choices) and tactile feedback (rumble packs, motion controls). Film as a medium lacks tactile and behavioral feedback; Naishuller, as a choice, only includes visual cues when the plot requires it. The first-person experience of "Hardcore Henry" is dissociative and ultimately not engaging. A future auteur may solve these problems, but for now the takeaway is Naishuller and his crew's action choreography. He made a first-person action movie that doesn't induce vomiting and isn't visually incoherent, and deserves credit.
Perhaps most disappointingly, the only thing hardcore about "Hardcore Henry" is its sense of humor, as long as you're a guy who feels like his hatred of women, disabled people and “girly hobbies” (like musical theatre) is suppressed by “political correctness." When it comes to violence and sexual content, sitting at home in your basement playing "Call of Duty" and watching internet porn provides a lot more stimulation than “Hardcore Henry.” 15-year-old Evan Dossey would have been so underwhelmed.
"Hardcore Henry" is a proof-of-concept, and in that sense it succeeds. It has a clear niche; fans of gonzo-action, have at it. If you're looking for anything substantive or truly engaging, however, there are better alternatives.