Good evening fiends of fright! Tonight we explore a genre film that’s a bit different than what we usually review, legendary director and producer Walter Hill’s THE ASSIGNMENT, which stars Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shaloub and Caitlin Gerard. Rarely do I get my hands on a film to review that is this star studded and stuffed with action, so needless to say, I was thrilled to jump into my assignment (pun intended). For an overview of the synopsis, I’ll be turning to the pro’s at IMDB for their breakdown:
“After waking up and discovering that he has undergone gender reassignment surgery, an assassin seeks to find the doctor responsible.”
First off, I want to say that the plot for this movie was awesome. I don’t care what Rotten Tomatoes says, this plot idea was totally original in my opinion and a fucking terrifying concept to say the least. With all the drama and controversy floating around the world involving gender roles this was a genius concept as it touched on the subject in a really interesting and fun way.
It was hard for me to really criticize the acting of Sigourney Weaver, who is our primary antagonist, or Michelle Rodriguez, our kind-of protagonist. Needless to say, they were excelle in this film, especially Michelle Rodriguez who plays a man during the first portion of the movie and then a man trapped in a woman’s body for the remainder of the film. In my opinion, I think she totally killed it. The interactions between Tony Shaloub and Sigourney Weaver were intense to say the least and kept me totally sucked in during their scenes. Sigourney Weaver blew me away with her performance as a twisted surgeon with an insane agenda.
Along with the great acting, this movie was action packed! Michelle Rodriguez was a total asskicker, which isn’t too far off if you’ve seen her in other great (or terrible, depending on who you ask) action flicks she has been in. There’s also a great deal of gun play which is always entertaining when it’s done the right way; which in my opinion was, and was totally satisfying. Although Michelle Rodriguez’s character, Frank Kitchen, is an assassin, she’s not necessarily a good guy, and it’s hard not to feel like all the killing is justified based off of how screwed over he, I mean she, gets.
When it came to the scene transitions, they were very reminiscent of the film THE WARRIORS, but still was able to have it’s own unique style that fit with the film. There almost seemed to be a noir type vibe to it which I really loved.
As for the viewing experience, the film is an easy watch with some dialogue that you do have to pay attention to because it adds to the plot establishment. I can see why some people wouldn’t like it, particularly movie critics, but I didn’t take it at face value and I enjoyed it for what it was – a fun, action packed thriller with a star studded cast! I could easily recommend this film for fans of movies like CRANK or SMOKING ACES, or any action flicks from the nineties.
Overall, I enjoyed THE ASSIGNMENT and will be picking up a copy for my film collection because it kicked a ton of ass!
THE ASSIGNMENT is now available on Ultra VOD and will be released in select theaters on April 7th
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