The Hard Way (2019)
It’s not a fight if there isn’t an exchange of blows.
Tonight we go back to the house of pain and get some wonderful hard hits. It’s good to throw in some simple action here and there so that we can all remember how wonderful it is to not get punched in the face by a mountain of a man with a look of disappointment on his face. It’s also a nice simple enjoyment that brings with it all those old classics, like one liners, revenge, and following through on threat-promises! That’s right, tonight we watch some bad guys learn why they are in the wrong The Hard Way.
We have a simple story - you’ll honestly be able to figure out a lot of the steps before the movie want’s you to, but we don’t hold that sort of stuff against a movie when it never pitches itself as a super-grade mystery flick. No, a dude’s brother gets gunned down chasing after a perp, and he goes to try and figure out the intricacies of why and who did it so that he can enact some classic vengeance. Admittedly, the vengeance part isn’t as burning hot until another violent action happens that gets him even more steamed off. So yes, we do have some bits here and there that are mysterious - like whose the big old boss man guy. They do layer in some character interactive levels here and there with histories and friendships and the likes, and those do get used to fuel some motivations for the story to move along, but it’s not an overly complex movie - and that’s fine, because we came here for action!
The actors do a decent enough job. Although they don’t feel phoned in, some do feel a bit clunky at times. I think it has less to do with the caliber of actors per say, as much as it feels that some of our more authentic feeling European characters don’t have english as their first language but are then forced to use it. That said, I wouldn’t call any of it horrible by any means, at worst that mediocre “good enough” - which is still fine for me. The villains do a good job of being villainy, the main good guy does a wonderful job of being an untouchable force of nature, and his side character buddy plays a wonderful street-cop military type that really would let him feel fine in any of them.
The characters themselves aren’t all super slathered in depth and intrigue, but given it’s an action movie the ones that do get to shine do a good job of it. The main villain stands out without any help, and our second-tier villain does a wonderful job of looking/acting the part of an unhinged man every time he spikes the camera with his over-emphasized smile. Our main gets the biggest connections to things through his relation to the dead brother and seemingly everyone else in the movie except the current baddies. His side kick is cool as heck, and often can feel like a one man buddy cop movie. A lot of the side characters don’t get as much to them - maybe their somebody’s friends or ex lovers, but they don’t have huge parts to play when it comes to the development line. For an action flick, especially a one-man army style of olden flick (although modernized in places and outfits, and with an arguably less preposterous body count) we don’t really go in expecting huge overarching character lines to change a person as they quest for revenge. It’s more a selling point that you want them to get their revenge because of how cool or potentially noble or righteous they are than something like “they’ve suffered and grown so much to get to this point!”
House of Payne.
Costumes aren’t anything outside of the normal, on account of the modern setting. Weapons aren’t really super crazy - we have a couple of handguns and a couple of rifles, but there use is largely almost background outside of the final act. The fists is where the carnage comes out, and in turn it also means that when it comes to the effects to help enhancing things there really isn’t much to worry about besides some blood. The blood looks fine, and it not being overly grotesque means a wider audience could potentially watch it. I think the most violent section is an ear that gets pulled off - outside of some teeth that get pulled out, but it’s hard to take it seriously when the character claims “they look like a jack-o-lantern with all those missing teeth” only to have him have a full normal set of teeth still.
The action itself is good stuff. The movie falls into what I like to call “stuntman movies,” a category in which I put many things that aren’t super-high budget, usually start or are directed by an stunt person, and in turn have a tendency to have really well choreographed and clean action scenes. What this translates to is that I know I’ll have a good time with the action scenes - the hits, the breaks, the posturing - even if I don’t have a great time with any other section. Here’s no different, say what you will about the acting or the story, but White always looks like his character hasn’t seen a fist fight challenge since he was four and is just over it, but doesn’t hesitate to flex that muscle in moves that look like they would break a car let alone a person.
The audio isn’t anything particularly stand out to me, as is with most movies. It’s there, it helps back up scenes, and it then disappears. Audio balance is good, you won’t have any hard times hearing cars, lines, punches or shots. Some lines aren’t as smoothly delivered as others, but nothing feels particularly phoned in. That said, there is a voice changer affect plugged in on the main villain, but I’d say it doesn’t really do a great job of covering up who it is in my opinion. I wouldn’t really say there’s any super deep thought paths for people to latch on to in it, but it does touch on things like drug running and taking advantage of women down on their luck, so I guess that could do in a stretch.
A man and his mustang.
As an action movie, it’ll give you what you want. The main character has some good lines - even if not strictly one liners, and he does another great job here. His sidekick ends up being a surprise stand out in the old cool factor, and the villains do a good job being nefarious without quite getting to the mustache-twirl levels. If you want something more than action, perhaps it isn’t the highest thing that should be on your list, but I’ve certainly seen worse things put together, so even if you just want a background flick it works pretty good.