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Assassin Review
Image Credit: Saban Films
Loading...Assassin Review
Bruce Willis– Valmora
Nomzamo Mbatha– Alexa
Andy Allo– Mali
Dominic Purcell– Adrian
Mustafa Shakir– Sebastian
Fernanada Andrade– Olivia
Barry Jay Minoff– Marko
(check out the rest of the cast here)
Directed by Jesse Atlas
Screenplay by Jesse Atlas and Aaron Wolfe
Distributed by Saban Films
Rated R for violence and language
Runtime– 88 minutes
Assassin is in select movie theaters, digital, and On Demand starting March 31st, 2023
Assassin, directed and co-written by first time feature film director Jesse Atlas and available in select movie theaters, digital, and On Demand starting March 31st, 2023, is a nifty sci-fi drama starring Nomzamo Mbatha as Alexa, a woman recruited by a shadowy group of scientists led by the mysterious Valmora (Bruce Willis in his final movie performance) to infiltrate a master criminal’s inner circle using a new technology that allows someone to “take over” another person’s body. The master criminal, Adrian (Dominic Purcell), is responsible for putting Alexa’s husband Sebastian (Mustafa Shakir) in a coma while trying to also infiltrate Adrian’s organization three months earlier. Hoping that she will want to exact revenge on Adrian for incapacitating the love of her life, Valmora and his team (Olivia, played by Fernanda Andrade, and Marko, played by Barry Jay Minoff) try to convince Alexa that their big plan to take out Adrian is worthwhile (they want her to kill Adrian) and that the technology, described as a “kind of new drone technology,” is feasible and not dangerous. At first, Alexa isn’t onboard with Valmora’s scheme. She does want revenge, in a sense, but she isn’t sure that Valmora’s plan is the way to go about it (the technology also sounds too weird to be real). So Valmora has Alexa first do a kind of dry run with the technology so she can see that it is, in fact, real and can work. When Alexa’s dry run is successful and she buys in, she is transferred into the body of artist Mali (Andy Allo), who is in the midst of courting Adrian to buy some of her artwork. The scheme works at first, as Alexa as Mali manages to befriend Adrian and get closer and closer to him. But there are complications. Big complications.
As depicted in the movie, when someone takes over another person’s body the person who is taken over sort of goes “on pause,” or at least that’s what Valmora and his team assume. What they don’t know, and what Alexa experiences, is that the longer she is inside of another body, the more likely it is that she will start to forget who she actually is. And what sort of mental damage is this takeover doing to Mali while all of this is happening? Is Mali starting to disappear? And will all of this uncertainty ultimately allow Adrian to keep being a criminal?
The big reason Valmora is so against Adrian in the first place is Adrian wants to steal the “new drone” technology and use it for his own purposes (I assume that means that Adrian will just sell, or maybe rent, the technology to anyone with enough money to want to use it). And Adrian does have one of the little robot worm things that allow the “mind/consciousness transfer” to happen (the little robot worm, once it goes inside someone, basically burrows into their brain), so in the process of killing him Alexa is also charged with retrieving the tech that Adrian has. Will Alexa be able to achieve her objectives before more problems arise? Will Adrian somehow figure out what’s going on and kill Alexa?
Assassin moves along briskly and is filled with plot surprises that I didn’t see coming. The movie manages to keep a sense of weird mystery throughout its 88 minute running time as you go along for the “what is happening to me?” ride with Alexa as she gets in deeper with Adrian. The movie is being advertised as a sci-fi action movie, but that’s a bit misleading. There are a few action moments spread throughout the movie, but the movie is more interested in seeing how long it will take for Alexa to achieve her objectives before any new complications pop up. The fact that Valmora and his team aren’t completely sure of what their technology will do is a fascinating idea. I mean, Valmora and his team have ideas about what can happen based on what’s happened to previous operatives/test subjects, but they can never be one hundred percent sure of what will happen when. All they really know is that they have to get Alexa to do what she can as quickly as possible and hope for the best. They, of course, don’t tell Alexa any of this until she’s neck deep in the muck of the mission, which is horrifying when you stop and think about it. Valmora and his team are not heroes. You might agree with their idea of not allowing Adrian and people like Adrian to have their technology, but then it makes you wish someone would take the technology from Valmora, too. Clearly no one is responsible enough to have access to this kind of technology.
Nomzamo Mbatha is fantastic as Alexa. She makes you feel Alexa’s pain as she navigates her husband’s condition while also trying to get revenge for what happened to him. Alexa is also put in a weird situation that is both incredibly dangerous and seemingly absurd, but she always finds a way to persevere. It’s also great how Mbatha and Andy Allo both make Alexa and Mali seem like the same person when they’re not. Alexa is ex-military and grieving the loss of her husband while Allo’s Mali is an artist trying to make a sale. You would think it would be difficult for Alexa to become Mali. There are a few awkward moments for Alexa, sure, as she acclimates to the whole “body hoping” process, but once she’s all in Alexa and Mali become the same person. The seamless way Mbatha and Allo work together is a true highlight of the movie.
Dominic Purcell is fascinatingly sleazy as mega criminal Adrian. He’s surrounded by opulence and an army of heavily armed security officers but Adrian doesn’t give off any sort of rich guy vibe. Yes, he likes to drink wine and talk about what art he wants to buy, but it’s all a big show. Adrian isn’t all that sophisticated, at least when it comes to all of the things that he surrounds himself with. Adrian is all about power. His courting of Mali is creepy as hell. We see Adrian try to clean up Mali’s foot after she cuts it on broken glass and as that happens there’s a real sense of “He’s holding on to her foot way too much in this process” and it will just weird you out. But then is something else going on with Adrian? Pay attention to the ending and ask yourself if you buy what happens.
Fernanda Andrade does an okay job as Olivia, one of Valmora’s scientists. She spends most of the movie trying to comfort Alexa as she goes through the weirdness of the body hoping technology, and while she’s solid and interesting enough she doesn’t get to do more than that. And Barry Jay Minoff is also okay as Marko, Valmora’s other scientist. He’s just sort of in the movie and, as a result, his big moment doesn’t really register quite the way it should.
And then there’s Bruce Willis as Valmora. It’s interesting how the Valmora character could have easily been played by any halfway decent character actor and it wouldn’t have changed the movie one bit. The movie doesn’t really need an actor like Bruce Willis in it. And I’d imagine that quite a bit of talk in the world at general when it comes to Willis will be all about his aphasia diagnosis and how that has basically caused Assassin to be his final movie. But it’s still cool to experience Willis and his obvious star power shine through regardless of the circumstances. The way he interacts with the other actors, his line reading, the way it seems like he’s fully engaged with what’s going on, it’s all well done and very watchable. It’s sad that this is Willis’ last performance, but it would have been sad regardless of the movie or project that ended up being his “final” performance. Could it have been worse? Sure. Could it have been better? Yes. But what we get is solid enough and that’s satisfying.
There is an odd moment at the end that I want to discuss without giving away any spoilers. Basically, I want to know what the heck is happening. Who is holding the baby? Is it meant to be mysterious or is it a case of “we didn’t get a good enough shot with the baby so we had to use a shot from earlier in the movie and we’ll just have to hope that people won’t notice?” This doesn’t kill the movie or anything, but it’s something I’m a bit confused about. Again, who the heck is holding the baby? Am I missing something?
Assassin is a nifty, well-made sci-fi drama that is definitely worth checking out. It’s chock full of fine performances, interesting ideas, and plenty of plot twists to keep you engaged in what’s going on. Assassin is also a solid start for first time feature director Jesse Atlas and a solid career ender for star Bruce Willis.
See Assassin. See it, see it, see it.
So what do we have here?
Dead bodies: Around 16 or so.
Explosions: None.
Nudity?: None.
Doobage:An old man walking, cane to the face, a woman asleep in a bathtub full of ice for some reason, a military base out in the desert, a gun, a woman on a bicycle, a brief hand-to-hand brawl, kidnapping, chair bondage, a train, an abandoned building, wet suit hooey, a bathtub full of ice, a laptop, a quick hand-to-hand brawl on a beach, hand slicing, bullet to the head, a pregnant woman, scissors to the side of the neck, a nightmare, a note that says “I don’t believe in her,” artist bullshit, feet, glass breaking, bloody shard removal, glass shard dropped into a glass of wine, a feinting spell, off screen red elevator massacre, strangulation via towel, helicopter hooey, a wicked stabby ring weapon, an old man on oxygen, sketching, a floral dress, a mega mansion estate, attempted recovery, diner hooey, two more bullets to the head, multiple flashbacks, a scalp massage, more nightmares, punch to the throat, indoor swimming pool hooey, attempted poolside sex, wine bottle to the head, more chair bondage, box cutter to the back of the neck, an impromptu commando raid, another hand-to-hand brawl, a balcony fall, butcher knife to the chest, a SWAT team, a vicious headshot, a baby, and a real mind twister ending.
Kim Richards? None.
Gratuitous: An old man walking, Bruce Willis, book reading, Bruce Willis fighting a woman, bags of ice in the trunk of an SUV, a train, a book titled Web of Humanity, “This is not my body!,” a brief martial arts brawl on the beach, a nanotech worm thing, Dominic Purcell, bare feet, foot cutting, talk about humanity, a phone call from Bruce Willis, a red elevator, a fashion shoot, strangulation via towel, a hot beverage that gets thrown in frustration, artist bullshit, record playing, a walk out in the woods, Bruce Willis hanging out in a diner, Bruce Willis ordering a grilled cheese with tomato, “a happy waitress,” a Wu-Tang t-shirt, pedicure hooey, a woman wearing a dress in a swimming pool, Atlas & Wolfe Kosher Meats, a baby, and a real mind twister ending.
Best lines: “This is not my body! This is not my body!,” “Three months! Three months in a coma!,” “Have we got a problem here?,” “What’s going on? They won’t tell me anything!,” “This is not a good idea,” “Ice will numb you and help you let go,” “What’s he doing? Stealing my tech!,” “This doesn’t feel right. He was a bad guy. You’ve killed bad guys before,” “Take off your shoes. You, too,” “I hate poetry. Why? You’re an artist,” “My apologies. I have to go. Take care of that foot,” “Tell these kids not to punch my car,” “Let’s go for a drive,” “I’d do it,” “Leave me alone! What if I don’t want to leave you alone?,” “First find the spider, then you can kill him,” “I’m still her!,” Alexa. I love you,” “Sebastian is gone!,” “I promise you I’ll never die,” and “She’s gone missing. You haven’t seen her, have you?”
