Assassins - Die Killer

Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas star in this great action-thriller. Sylvester Stallone plays Robert Rath, who is supposed to kill this guy at a funeral, but someone beats him to it. He tracks the man and has a nice little talk with him. The other man is another assassin, Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas). Rath (who is the best assassin there is) gets another assignment worth two million dollars. Eliminate buyers and return girl and disk and he can retire. Bain wants to beat Rath and complete the task first. What follows is a battle between the two assassins. Sylvester Stallone looks sleepy, at one time they show a close-up of his eyes and Julianne Moore's eyes. You can see the difference so easily. Banderas is alive, which is good. The best performance is probably from Julianne Moore who is the girl they have to get the disk from. Special effects are good, as is the ending climax. Overall, it is thrilling, with a fair amount of action and violence.

In order to really enjoy this movie, you have to put your brain in a freezer for 133 minutes and just refrain from trying analyze anything in here. There are more holes in this story than swiss cheese, as the cliché somewhat goes.

Having said that, however, I did enjoy the action scenes and the by-play between the two assassins - "Robert Rath" (Sylvester Stallone) and "Miguel Bain" (Antonio Banderas) - enough to make it a fun ride. I might even have rated it another star higher had a few things weren't confusing and left unanswered, or Banderas spoke clearer English. Still, it's not bad and for fans of "Sly" and action films, worth a look.

Professional hit-man Robert Rath wants to fulfill a few more contracts before retiring but unscrupulous ambitious newcomer hit-man Miguel Bain keeps killing Rath's targets.

How often are Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas in the same movie? Not very often. And how often are they both killers, who would be more than happy to kill each other? Only once, so far as I know. It is a great combination, and proof that Stallone was not just a star of the 80s -- he is just as strong here (and some would say he is still good in 2015).

This also happens to be one of those Julianne Moore films that has her as a main character before you realized that Moore was a big star. Maybe at this point it was more obvious, but it is quite surprising how many films she did before she was seen as an A-list actress.

Assassins is a top notch, big budget thriller that is often over looked when discussing Stallone's filmography. Which is a shame, cause it's one of Sly's better films and his performance as an aging burn out hit-man is quite solid.

Antonio Banderas really steals the show though as the over the top and cocky newcomer who idolizes Stallone's character. Banderas is full of energy and his performance is electric. Miguel Bain is one of Banderas' best roles. An all time great movie villain perhaps.

Many fans forget about Stallone's solid output in the 90's, Cliffhanger is always mentioned but Assassins seems to be forgotten. It's a slick and explosive action thriller from "Lethal Weapon" director Donner. Featuring some great dialog and shoot outs between Stallone and Banderas.

On the negative side, the film is too long. Running over 2 hours, "Assassins" begins to wear out it's welcome. And the love story between Moore and Stallone is too cheesy and unrealistic to be taken seriously.

Like "Daylight" and "Copland", "Assassins" is one of Stallone's most underrated films from the 90's. An over looked gem that deserves to be seen again.

This movie is very entertaining and has appropriate amount of action and suspense. The action sequences are great and the interactions between Stallone and Banderas excellent. If you're a fan of action films, this one is definitely worth a watch.