Hardcore Henry
STX Entertainment | Release Date: April 8, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
14
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 8, 2016
By allowing viewers to step into the shoes of a wall-climbing Jackie Chan, a parkour-sprinting Daniel Craig or a bullet-spraying Ahnold, it does something that live action has never attempted before. The carnage flies—it’s possible to miss a lot of it. But if action movies are meant to be stunning, Hardcore Henry can proudly take its place among the giants. Even better, it lets you stand with them. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiApr 6, 2016
The film is an exhilarating and inventive spectacle that makes every other action film from the last 10 years look as obsolete as the Lumière brothers running that train at you back in 1896. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerApr 7, 2016
Is it much of a movie? Not really. It’s more of an experience – a passive sort of virtual reality – that uses a bare-bones narrative as a vehicle for a big-time body count. Read full review
75
ObserverStephen GarrettApr 7, 2016
A head-spinning, whirling dervish of an action movie. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezApr 3, 2016
The film's unbelievably precise choreography of action seeks to tap into a universal feeling of powerlessness. Read full review
70
VarietyDennis HarveySep 21, 2015
Hardcore feels like umpteen post-“Star Wars” action blockbusters trash-compacted into one — and whether that fundamentally appeals or not, the ingenuity of effort is undeniably high. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonSep 19, 2015
Hardcore blasts along like a supercharged computer-game shoot-em-up, bursting with sick humor and splatterpunk violence. Read full review
67
The Film StageEthan VestbyFeb 12, 2016
It feels longer than 90 minute because, despite changing locations frequently enough, Ilya Naishuller‘s debut feature never really has a strong sense of structure nor escalation to make it as truly kinetic as it wants. Yet, at least to some degree, the right spirit is there to lift it through some of the deadening stretches. Read full review
65
TheWrapDave WhiteApr 7, 2016
Presented with a moral universe where annihilation is all, it’s difficult to invest in the film as anything more significant than a breathless series of punishing vignettes. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 7, 2016
It's all about the ride, the relentless wallop and whoosh. But, hey, sometimes that's all a cine-junkie needs for a fix. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsApr 7, 2016
Hardcore Henry is like a good roller-coaster in that it does not require a complex reason to be: it's there, it's fun, you ride it, and that's about it. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnSep 19, 2015
It never crystallizes into a singular experience, and instead collapses in a rush of well-intentioned innovations. Read full review
50
Village VoiceChuck WilsonApr 13, 2016
You have a movie with everything it needs save one crucial element: emotion. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 7, 2016
A hypercaffeinated first-person action flick that teeters somewhere between gonzo insanity and a nausea-inducing endurance test. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanApr 7, 2016
The sense of goofy, if gory, good humor [Copley] brings to Hardcore Henry goes a long way toward mitigating the film’s tedious barbarity. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoApr 7, 2016
When the action is at its sharpest, such as with Henry’s mid-chase leap from a detonating truck onto the back of a motorcycle, it’s spectacular. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMichael OrdoñaApr 7, 2016
If one can accept the story’s videogame logic and cope with the kinetosis, “Hardcore” is often exhilaratingly extreme. Read full review
50
ConsequenceSarah KurchakApr 7, 2016
The film starts to risk adrenaline fatigue after the first hour. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyApr 6, 2016
Shot with head-mounted GoPro cameras, the Russian-made action flick Hardcore Henry mimics the experience of watching someone else play a very derivative first-person shooter with sub-Duke Nukem humor. Read full review
42
The PlaylistRuss FischerApr 8, 2016
Sure, there's a bit of spectacle to the film's utterly ridiculous violence. Even that dulls, however, without character or stakes to inject urgency into the parade of broken bodies. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleApr 7, 2016
Hardcore Henry is a single-gear novelty that never achieves real liftoff. Read full review
40
The New York TimesGlenn KennyApr 7, 2016
Its dour eccentricity gives Hardcore Henry a potency above and beyond that of standard-issue show-off action fare. That doesn’t mean it’s not still obnoxious, though. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 7, 2016
The film turned out to be plodding and boring. No one can accuse Hardcore Henry of being plodding. It does get to be boring, but in the high-tech, cutting-edge mode of first-person-shooter videogames that dazzle your eyes, spark your synapses and numb your brain. Read full review
40
CineVueBen NicholsonSep 19, 2015
The visuals are undeniably impressive at times, as Henry parkours around the city or during a particularly tense shoot-out, but they also struggle with inevitable motion sickness of the frenetic handheld camerawork. Read full review
40
The GuardianJordan HoffmanSep 19, 2015
Naishuller’s technique is one that could be well served as a shorter gimmick; a solitary action scene in a larger film. Hardcore is unrelenting and unforgiving in its commitment to be loud, fast, destructive and gross. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniApr 7, 2016
Never again let it be said that an action movie is just like a video game. Hardcore Henry, a frenetic, dizzying, and ultraviolent actioner from Russian rocker-turned-director Ilya Naishuller is one - a first-person shooter writ large for the big screen. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 7, 2016
Hardcore Henry is jarring and so a-cinematic that I couldn’t enjoy much of the technical razzle-dazzle this ticking-clock monstrosity was hurling at me. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghApr 7, 2016
While its audacity is laudable, the film ultimately has all the thrill of watching someone else play a first-person-shooter video game. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithApr 7, 2016
It’s breathtaking. It’s dazzling. It’s world-altering, is what it is. For the first time ever, a movie has actually done it. Hardcore Henry has precisely replicated the experience of watching someone else play a video game. Read full review
0
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Apr 6, 2016
Stupid as a bag of hammers and twice as loud, Hardcore Henry sounds like the title of the worst Kissinger bio ever. Actually, it's an action movie that feels more like you are trapped in a video game. A really, really bad video game. Read full review
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