Like "Showdown in Manila","Hardcore"(Hardcore Henry) we all waited a long time, and if at Nevsky we were hoping for something finally digestible, then here we were waiting for a big breakthrough, a new word in action films - after all, everything there, EVERYTHING was filmed in the first person, this is for you not "Brother-2" and not "Doom", where it is only partially.
The desire to do something like this started with "Modern Warfare", where battles with bosses in the form of quick-time elements took place not in a shooting manner, but in close combat. Something similar probably happened before Warfare. Next we know - Ilya Naishuller shot the video "Bad Asshole", they found him (or he found him without being lazy and getting his ass off the couch, unlike the whiners who dream of filming "true action thriller") authoritative people and gave him the opportunity to film this on the big screen - especially since it’s like the RUSSIANS, OURS filmed it, they will be the first who dared to film this, and what kind of stars will be filmed: Danila Kozlovsky, Sharlto Copley, and in the episodes there is part of our elite (which is why we had to finish filming, as far as I understand). Well, I went to the cinema at the first opportunity.
I don’t know, maybe the hall wasn’t very good, or maybe I was already old and nerdy, I wasn’t drunk or high - but I left the hall in an empty mood - THE FILM DIDN’T GO TO ME. That's it in general. Okay, I’ll switch to the classic review style - “plus-minus-conclusion”, it will become clearer to you.
Pros:
- Nice idea taken from the Modern Warfare games.
- The 18+ rating is fully consistent. For those who are hungry for blood and tits, this is it for them. They are borrowing from everything cruel, even from the famous cartoon “Happy Tree Friends” they took something.
- There's a LOT of action. A lot - at least 70% of screen time. The opening credits immediately make it clear that there is nothing for the faint-hearted to watch, and after a short introduction everything begins. There are a lot of fights - hand-to-hand action and shooting are approximately equal in time and turn into one another - hand-to-hand combat uses a lot of cruel and good elements, improvised weapons, knives and even one’s own entrails! The shooting action uses a variety of weapons, shields, grenades, mortars and so on, enemies are covered with red holes and it’s all designed to be spectacular, I won’t argue here. Also, as expected in an action movie, there are bosses - a flamethrower, a tank, a helicopter, and a number of memorable smaller opponents. All this happens under some good music, including Queen. I will also note that the chases turned out to be quite good.
- The final boss is played by Danila Kozlovsky and plays normally - I was afraid that he would either turn up the maximum pathos (which would be forgivable) or include the Joker, so beloved by the student-hipsters-philosophers-SPGSniks, with his half-whispered pope... speeches - but that was all in within normal limits.
- Positive borrowings - a hero who cannot speak; the plot itself is a combination of “Total Recall” and all sorts of Bournes; the aforementioned features from Modern Warfare (even directly quoting characters) and "Happy Tree Friends", as well as a number of elements that we have seen in action films and would like to see in first person.
- Sharlto Copley is the biggest plus of this film, and the plot allowed him to try on a huge bunch of characters at the same time, the most outrageous of which is “Price” from Warfare. He carries the entire film on himself. And there is something to pull from...
Cons:
- Despite the fact that the plot is complete and most things are explained at the end, the arthouse and surreal nature of what is happening reminded me of the trashy action films “Adrenaline-2” and “Machete-2” (+/- a couple of others, I don’t like to remember shit). Why was Akan able to do telekinesis? Why and for what reason did he injure the Professor? Who were these chicks in leather? Sometimes it was not clear to understand WHAT EVEN HAPPENED, who was beating and killing whom and for what, and the film periodically slipped into stonedness. The very trashiness of the action reminded me of "Flint-2: Osvobozhdenie", where Epifantsev from a cool but vulnerable Rambo turned into an invincible superhero with superpowers, only if he was in the first person, with lame action logic. Well, okay, the trashiness of the action in places is not an amateur and I, as you understand, am not an ardent fan of this - but there are fans of such an action and they have the right to life. However, there is a second problem that I will never get over, and which, in combination with the above-mentioned surreal, brings down all the developments into minuses, this...
- SHAKED EPILEPTIC CHAMBER. I held cameras in my hands (point-and-shoot cameras, to be more precise) with image stabilization, I saw first-person action in other films and it was more digestible (yes, in the Duma there are CG graphics, thanks for the reminder) and most importantly, I saw excellent scenes in the trailer (especially the outrageous one in which the hero and Copley in the image of Price kill the private security guards - in the film she is just as awesome as several others from the trailers) - and I didn’t understand why there was such shaking in the film itself in non-trailer scenes? Because of this nonsense, little is understood; the film stars a lot of celebrities - but I could only find out Alexandra Palya, Ravshan Kurkov (who played even such a short episode in a showless and wooden manner) and Evgenia BadComediana, who posted a positive review in return for the role - and only because I looked for him there carefully. Even in the “Bad Motherfucker” video it wasn’t so shaky and the hand-to-hand combat, by the way, looked a little better.
- The absence of other innovative ideas other than first-person shooting - there was nothing new or revolutionary in the film.
After watching, I talked to several viewers - a student and two schoolchildren (how did they get to see the 18+ film?). In general, they noted that the film was not boring and did not sag, but there was too much cruelty, in places, in their opinion, unnecessary and a strange plot that could have been simpler. The student added that FOR OUR cinema this is a breakthrough, but he no longer saw anything very new.
To summarize, it cannot be said that "Hardcore" - this is a bad film and it has a lot of advantages, but two significant minuses overshadowed all the positive aspects. Wouldn’t it be easier to make a film about war, gang warfare or “Indiana Jones style” than to make an arthouse trash combination from “Total Recall” ", "Universal Soldier" and "Adrenaline 2"? Wouldn't it have been easier to shoot the ENTIRE movie like the aforementioned "Price and the Hero vs. the Special Forces" scene to reduce the jarring?
The film did not live up to most expectations, was over-advertised and the creators overheated the viewer with its anticipation - but I do not regret that I went to the cinema - the direction in which Russian action films are moving (albeit very slowly) is correct, and maybe Ilya Naishuller will take it into account all the minuses and the next film will be epic, and it’s not a sin to throw a penny at such directors. Whether you want to watch the film in the cinema or wait for the rip is up to you, here, because of the above-mentioned points, I am not your advisor.
Thank you for reading and see you next time.
Author: uranium
Especially for Fight-Films.Info
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Tags: Hardcore Henry, Danila Kozlovsky, Ilya Naishuller, Sharlto Copley
Tags: Hardcore Henry, Danila Kozlovsky, Ilya Naishuller, Sharlto Copley
Perhaps we are talking about “Pandemic” and “Hardcore Line”, they are hanging on torrents (both on the topic of zombies and viruses)
Dmitriy, and which one? There are five “Pandemics” on the root tracker and they’re all about viruses :)
And, although yes, only one of them is 2016.
When you try to google “Hardcore Line” you google “Hardcore Henry”, hardcore music and porn.
http://fs.to/video/films/i4pFztmhXlMytgVUIrE7VOo-hardlajn.html
Since when was first person shooting a novel idea? There are plenty of such films. This month alone, in addition to Hardcore, two similar films were released, and they were often released before
amuo, please list them. I want to check it out.
amuo,
Firstly, FOR OUR CINEMA, and secondly, Hardcore itself was filmed a long time ago, at least a year ago it should have been released, but I suspect and even am sure that it was completed with celebrities like Bazhenov and Parfenov. Thirdly, the film is COMPLETELY in the first person, and not instantly, there are few such films.