Old Guy

Old Guy (2025) is an action comedy movie directed by Simon West and it is literally the same movie I've watched a million times.

Positives for Old Guy (2025): Christoph Waltz, Lucy Liu and the young guy whose name can't remember give decent performances. The action sequences are decent. And finally, the movie does work as background noise for other things.

Negatives for Old Guy (2025): The plot is literally the same old stuff I've seen like a million times before. The plot is very predictable with how everything plays out. You don't remember the names of any of the characters. Things are just happen in the movie for the hell of it. And finally, the movie has very messy pacing.

Overall, Old Guy (2025) is about as generic as an action comedy movie can be.

Old Guy is a comedic reworking of The Mechanic, the 1970s thriller that starred Charles Bronson.

Christoph Waltz is the ageing hitman Danny Dolinski. He still goes clubbing but has an arthritic hand. It means he cannot shoot straight.

His shadowy bosses are modernising. Out go the old timers. In come the young whippersnappers.

Danny has to train the Gen Z new blood, Wihlborg (Cooper Hoffman) who is still wet behind the ears and needs to learn the craft of being a hitman.

They are tasked to kill an Irish mobster, but the job goes south. Now they are the target.

This is a generic comedy thriller that has been done to death in the last few years. The screenplay is anaemic. It wastes the talented cast which includes Lucy Liu who really does not have much to do.

The only interesting thing about this movie is the sheer number of people with producer credits.

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.

Yes, the movie follows a familiar formula, one of those films where you find yourself thinking, I've seen so many like this. I agree that it doesn't break new ground or brining something new and similar other movies exist, but there's a catch.

Despite its simplicity, the movie is enjoyable. At the end of the day, it serves its purpose well, that is entertainment.

What makes it stand out? The exceptional acting skills of Christoph Waltz. His performance adds an extra flavour to the old recipe, making it better the film above many others currently being released.

A good popcorn watch, so just do.

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.