Old Guy

In light British mob dramatic-thriller "Old Guy" the London firm of implausibly young-at-heart titular hit-man Christoph Waltz prepares him for retirement by having him oversee / train young new-age upcoming killer Cooper Hoffman (good) on a 'suicide mission' to Belfast - on which Waltz takes along old friend Lucy Liu (also good). Experienced director Simon West aims for an "In Bruges" feel but Greg Johnson's second screenplay (after the decent "The Last Son") gives it no chance of hitting such heights. Not funny enough to be a comedy, but too silly to be a tense thriller, it falls between the two genres rather than rising as a crossover. Passably entertaining - no more.

Let's face it, the hitman mobster genre was done to death long ago, rejuvenated only by a clever twist here and there. The old guy mentor twist is fine, if done right, but here it's not even close. Chris Waltz looks cringingly old, mainly in his movements, Lucy liu give another non performance, whilst the young sidekick at least has something about him that's fresh and comedic. All the other characters are truly forgettable, a mandatory baddy is'nt even written in.

Production, soundtrack, editing is left waiting for a decent cast and a workable script , none of which are delivered unfortunately.

Give this one a run out, but then retire it to the back shelf.

Talk about a movie that should be watched on your phone because everyone in it phoned it in. Christopher Waltz is horribly miscast as an aging hitman with an injury, he is about as convincing as Danny Devito's chances of being drafted to the NBA.

Everything in this movie is cheap and forgettable, be it the pathetic car chase or the abysmal digital fire. Literally finished watching this 5 mins ago and I'm struggling to remember any scene of performance worth mentioning.

The only positive is that it's runtime, it feels short and an easy film to have playing in the background when you are doing something else.

If your goal was to watch a film with great action, intrigue and classic hitman/spy vibes then avoid like the plague. This is a mess, wanting to be funny but isn't, wanting to be clever, but isn't, wanting to be entertaining and again isn't. It feels like a movie made for tax write-offs and has roped in a cast that legit are bound by some irreversible contract or ungodly bet.

When I read the synopsis, I thought that this could be a hidden gem even though the rating wasn't too high. So I gave it a try. But, boy! Do I regret watching it. The comedic part wasn't doing it for me. I don't get any laugh from watching this movie, at all. Actually, I think that the heaviest part of this movie isn't action nor comedy, it's drama. The plot is very straightforward with minimum plot twist. So no heavy thinking needed when watching it. And although the acting was decent, I couldn't help but yawning the entire time I watched this movie. It's so dull and unsatisfying, there's no joy that I get after watching it. So if you have other movies lining up in your watch list, I suggest you skip this one. Not worth your time.

It feels like either the movie was horribly cut, or whoever wrote dialogues and script was plain wasted. Or both. The pauses between phrases are too long, the dialogues end abruptly, the scenes pacing is way off, there's little reason to what's happening, there's no connection between characters - they just utter phrases for (seemingly) the sake of it.

The main character made look not only lacking wrist strength and mobility due to surgery, but lacking any sort of mobility and agility like he's ninety-plus already. The secondary main younger character is plain insufferable. And it's nothing about the actors, it's how the movie is made - I've no recollection of seeing the actor who plays the younger character, but I've plenty of recollections of seeing Lucy Liu and Christoph Waltz, and as great as they are, their characters look just as abysmal here. So it's definitely not an acting issue.

It's just... wasteful. Decent premise, even if not anything new. Great cast. Good potential. All wasted. Sad.