"Lass is More" Grumbles About "Hardcore Henry"

By Josh Lasser on April 12, 2016 • ( 2 )

The new movie “Hardcore Henry” is centered on a gimmick — it’s shot in the first-person. As gimmicks go, that isn’t a bad one. The problem is that “Hardcore Henry” isn’t able to convert the gimmick into telling a worthwhile story. Heck, the gimmick isn’t even well-executed. The entire affair is perplexing and why anyone thought it might not be is… well, it’s even more perplexing.

Today, we talk about “Hardcore Henry” on the podcast and, as much as the movie may have made me sick to my stomach, that isn’t why I feel so rotten about it. Sick to my stomach I can get past, not being true to your own gimmick is far more problematic.

More than anything, I want to hand the movie back to writer/director Ilya Naishuller so that Naishuller can give it another shot. There has to have been a way to make “Hardcore Henry” work and I’d love Naishuller to take another six months or a year to figure it out.