Review: POV Action Flick 'Hardcore Henry'

There's no other feature film like "Hardcore Henry," a first-person POV chase which sets aside typical cinematic concerns of plot and character to create a high-octane and cartoonishly violent string of action set pieces. Written and directed by Ilya Naishuller, who achieved internet fame after directing "single-take" first-person videos for his band Biting Elbows, the film is essentially a feature-length version of his "Insane Office Escape" idea with a couple famous faces (Tim Roth, briefly, and Sharlto Copley, in a plethora of guises) to glue a thin veneer of story to the relentless running, jumping, and shooting.

Simultaneously inane and impressive, "Hardcore Henry" may be the first film for the Twitch generation, a video game speedrun that monotonously grinds down its own assets until the result is little more than "Restless Leg Syndrome: The Movie."

Extreme violence begins right in the opening titles, rendered in...