Assassins
One of those action movies that knew exactly what it was for
Some movies stay with you because they are important.
Others stay with you because of when you watched them.
Assassins clearly belongs to the second group.
I saw it a long time ago, so I cannot reconstruct every detail scene by scene, but I remember the feeling very clearly: I did not dislike it at all.
Quite the opposite.
It is one of those 1990s action movies that went down easily.
The kind of film you could put on late on a Friday night after coming home from being out.
And it worked.
It did not need to change your life.
It needed to entertain you.
Richard Donner brings together Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas as professional killers working against each other, building a thriller that now feels inseparable from its decade.
For me, that is not a weakness.
It has almost everything you would expect from a mid-1990s action production: recognizable stars, professionals living by their own rules, guns, betrayals, pursuit, technology that now looks wonderfully dated and a fairly generous running time for a story that probably did not need quite so many turns.
But it has personality.
Stallone does what he did especially well during that period: presence, seriousness, few words and the constant feeling that his character has been doing this job for far too long.
Banderas is the contrast.
More nervous.
More impulsive.
More theatrical.
Where Stallone contains everything, Banderas lets everything out.
That opposition is probably what I remember most.
You do not really need to believe deeply in the psychology of two professional killers to enjoy watching them try to stay one step ahead of each other.
The movie understands that.
Several critics at the time complained that there was not enough action or that too much time passed between confrontations.
I can understand that.
Assassins does not move like a contemporary action film.
It waits.
It follows people.
It lets characters watch each other.
And some sections may now feel overly long.
But I also miss that quality in much current action cinema: movies could slow down without assuming the audience required another explosion every thirty seconds.
Donner knew how to make commercial cinema.
You can feel it.
Even when the story is conventional and occasionally implausible, the movie has the scale and polish of a major production, making everything seem slightly more important than it actually is.
Sometimes that is enough.
Julianne Moore also gives the film another element beyond simply watching Stallone and Banderas circle each other for two hours.
I would never call Assassins a masterpiece.
It is not even one of Donner's best films.
But I have never fully understood the harshness of some of its reviews.
Roger Ebert essentially argued that he could not believe what he was watching.
Fair enough.
I do not particularly need to believe a movie like this.
I need it to establish its rules, pull me inside them and make me want to know what happens next.
It did.
Perhaps there is something generational here too.
1990s action cinema had a very specific idea of entertainment. Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, Van Damme, Seagal, Banderas establishing himself in Hollywood... these films were everywhere.
Some were excellent.
Some were terrible.
Many simply did their job very well.
Assassins is one of those.
I do not need to pretend it is especially deep.
It is not.
I do not need to claim the screenplay is brilliant.
It is not that either.
But it has two stars facing off, competent direction, some effective suspense and that unmistakable 1990s atmosphere that almost feels like a genre of its own today.
Most importantly, I remember watching it and having a good time.
Sometimes that is all an action movie needs.
Friday night.
Coming home.
Turning on the television.
Stallone.
Banderas.
And two hours ahead without asking for anything more.
Some movies stay with you because they are important.
Others stay with you because of when you watched them.
Assassins clearly belongs to the second group.
I saw it a long time ago, so I cannot reconstruct every detail scene by scene, but I remember the feeling very clearly: I did not dislike it at all.
Quite the opposite.
It is one of those 1990s action movies that went down easily.
The kind of film you could put on late on a Friday night after coming home from being out.
And it worked.
It did not need to change your life.
It needed to entertain you.
Richard Donner brings together Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas as professional killers working against each other, building a thriller that now feels inseparable from its decade.
For me, that is not a weakness.
It has almost everything you would expect from a mid-1990s action production: recognizable stars, professionals living by their own rules, guns, betrayals, pursuit, technology that now looks wonderfully dated and a fairly generous running time for a story that probably did not need quite so many turns.
But it has personality.
Stallone does what he did especially well during that period: presence, seriousness, few words and the constant feeling that his character has been doing this job for far too long.
Banderas is the contrast.
More nervous.
More impulsive.
More theatrical.
Where Stallone contains everything, Banderas lets everything out.
That opposition is probably what I remember most.
You do not really need to believe deeply in the psychology of two professional killers to enjoy watching them try to stay one step ahead of each other.
The movie understands that.
Several critics at the time complained that there was not enough action or that too much time passed between confrontations.
I can understand that.
Assassins does not move like a contemporary action film.
It waits.
It follows people.
It lets characters watch each other.
And some sections may now feel overly long.
But I also miss that quality in much current action cinema: movies could slow down without assuming the audience required another explosion every thirty seconds.
Donner knew how to make commercial cinema.
You can feel it.
Even when the story is conventional and occasionally implausible, the movie has the scale and polish of a major production, making everything seem slightly more important than it actually is.
Sometimes that is enough.
Julianne Moore also gives the film another element beyond simply watching Stallone and Banderas circle each other for two hours.
I would never call Assassins a masterpiece.
It is not even one of Donner's best films.
But I have never fully understood the harshness of some of its reviews.
Roger Ebert essentially argued that he could not believe what he was watching.
Fair enough.
I do not particularly need to believe a movie like this.
I need it to establish its rules, pull me inside them and make me want to know what happens next.
It did.
Perhaps there is something generational here too.
1990s action cinema had a very specific idea of entertainment. Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, Van Damme, Seagal, Banderas establishing himself in Hollywood... these films were everywhere.
Some were excellent.
Some were terrible.
Many simply did their job very well.
Assassins is one of those.
I do not need to pretend it is especially deep.
It is not.
I do not need to claim the screenplay is brilliant.
It is not that either.
But it has two stars facing off, competent direction, some effective suspense and that unmistakable 1990s atmosphere that almost feels like a genre of its own today.
Most importantly, I remember watching it and having a good time.
Sometimes that is all an action movie needs.
Friday night.
Coming home.
Turning on the television.
Stallone.
Banderas.
And two hours ahead without asking for anything more.
Mini Review: One of those action movies that knew exactly what it was for Some movies stay with you because they are important. Others stay with you because of when you watched them. Assassins clearly belongs to the second group. I saw it a long time ago, so I cannot reconstruct every detail scene by scene, but I remember the feeling very clearly: I did not dislike it at all. Quite the opposite. It is one of those 1990s action movies that went down easily....