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31 out of 36 people found the following review useful: Definitely worth checking out!!!, 21 April 2006 Author: Jack Carter from Canada
This movie is action packed and definitely worth watching for any fan of action movies. I'm surprised at the low rating it's has so far on IMDb.Two of my favorite actors are in the movie, Sylvester Stalone and Antonio Banderas. I just found out the movie is written by the same people who did the Matrix and I can see how that is so. Any movie with Banderas is usually good, and this is no exception. :) If anyone likes sniper movies like Enemy at the Gates or Leon the Professional, this is definitely a movie worth checking out. You won't regret it.
30 out of 39 people found the following review useful: Thrilling movie., 15 September 1998 Author: Craig Porter from Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
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.
26 out of 33 people found the following review useful: Definately underrated..., 10 June 2000 Author: Banky-4 from Minnesota
Assassins is definately one of the better written action films I've seen, but then again, it was written by the Wachowski Brothers, who also wrote (and directed) the equally well done Matrix.This film was directed By Richard Donner, who also directed Lethal Weapon 1-4 and Superman, among other films. I felt the characters were all well presented and the story was told well.Apparently, Brian Hegleand rewrote parts of the script, but I can't imagine what, since the whole script seems so Wachowski. Huh...
28 out of 38 people found the following review useful: What was written before the Matrix, 21 December 2003 Author: illeatyourdog from United States
When I firast watched this film,I enjoyed it thoroughly. Ironically enough in the advent of John Woo (his american popularity and his imitators) as well as Micheal Bay, Tony Scott, and Jerry Brukhiemer, it is rephreshing to see an action movie, a shoot-out action movie, where the emphasis is on efficiency and control rather than chaos. Unlike the John Woo pilosophy of keeping the guns firing non stop even if they hit nothing, Assassins works on the exact opposite theory of every shot has a purpose and a meaning and no shot is taken wildly even to distract (add on to the fact that in most John Woo movies, and especially Michael Bay movies, the guns are super loud, whereas in Assassins, pretty much every shot thats fired is silenced). I beleive there is only one instance in the film where shots are fired wildly wnd wrecklessly, and that is during the apartment scene where Antonio Banderas' character. Micheal Bein, shoots blindly through a wall at Slyvester Stallone's character, Robert Rath. Other than that, there is not really anytype of panic fire or wild bullet spraying (in fact I dont beleive this film even features automatic rifles of any kind). Strangely enough, this allows for events that move extremly quick: example, the first scene featuring the three title characters in the hotel. We see Antonio Banderas, in the blink of an eye alomst, take out 3 guards, walkinto the room they were guarding and then take out the 4 targets in that room in the same amount of time. In a way, it is very similar to the old Samurai films since their action scenes moved in a similar manner with nothingn then all of a sudden a few quick sword strikes and the conflict is over. That being said, this movie would require a certain type of taste in action movies or is a type of movie you have to be "in the mood" to watch.sidenote: When I first watched this film, I had no idea it featured the would be superstar Antonio Banderas, nor that it was written by the soon to be Matrix creators. In that sense it is almost a fun movie to watch because it kinda answers the question "what did they do before they were famous?" and now you know.
14 out of 17 people found the following review useful: A No-Brained-But-Fun Ride, 10 February 2007 Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States
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.
15 out of 20 people found the following review useful: Characters Not Consistent But Lots Of Action, 30 August 2003 Author: CitizenCaine from Las Vegas, Nevada
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas, and Julianne Moore star in this action movie: a battle of hit men. Stallone has had so many bad roles before, but this is one of the better roles I've seen him in. He would follow it five years later with a similar role in Get Carter. However, a real hit-man would not have hesitated to waste a woman. Antonio Banderas seemed out of character as an assassin. He was way over the top with emotional outbursts and impatience. These seem highly uncharacteristic of a successful assassin on his way up. Julianne Moore's character changed from a calm, cool bad girl into a helpless, bumbling female after meeting Stallone. How convenient! Many Of Richard Donner's other films have similar problems. However, there is enough enjoyable action, development and tension to enjoy the movie, as long as you suspend a lot of belief ...a lot of belief. *** of 4 stars.
12 out of 17 people found the following review useful: not bad, 16 February 2003 Author: CamaroLuvNgal84 from Georgia
I thought this was a great action flick. I'm really into this genre of movies. I don't particularly like Sylvester Stallone but he was pretty good in this movie. Julianne Moore was good but I think she would've been better if her role was bigger. But I think Antonio Banderas stole the show. He was so good as the psychopathic assassin. I loved the chase scenes. Especially the scene in the taxi. Miguel Bain's (Banderas) evilness just oozed out of him as this scene played. Robert Rath (Stallone) wanted to kill Bain so bad during this scene. I loved the explosions. I just had a thought though. Whenever Rath blew Bain out of the window and then it showed Bain in the bathtub, shouldn't he have had more wounds than it showed? I don't know. Maybe it was just me. Anyways. This movie had violence but not as much as most movies in this genre does. I thought it had just enough. The ending was pretty good. It seemed like Bain just would not die. An invincible villain! How many times have you seen that in these kinds of movies? Well, I don't have much more to say about this film except I really enjoyed it and thanks for reading my review! Bye!
13 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Terrific Action-Thriller, 13 July 1999 Author: Christopher Borg from Malta, Europe
A great movie.Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas did a terrific job on the screen as they play the role of two killers.Stallone is Robert Rath, best killer around, the Number 1. Banderas is Miguel Bain, the one who wants to become the new Number 1, but if he wants to do so, he has to eliminate Rath.They meet at a funeral, where Rath's mark is killed by Bain before he does so. From then on, it's battle between the two.The movie is quite similar to "The Specialist"(1994) - another Sylvester Stallone movie - only that there he had no Banderas to fight against!A couple of words on the cast. Well, I already said that Stallone and Banderas did well but my compliments go to Julianne Moore. She was brilliant.Vote : 80/100.
7 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Nice touch, 21 January 2000 Author: Anders Åslund (anders.aslund@xpress.se) from Karlstad, Sweden
There are some touches that makes me think of Matrix in this film. The gunfighting scenes are really good, mostly because they are very silent - the assassins both use silencers, which adds new flavor to a well-used dish. I like that part very much. And Banderas is great to watch as usual. There simply isn't anyone with his mimics and his body language anywhere else. Stallone does a good job too, actually. And Julianne Moore, yeah well - who could say anything bad about her?Entertaining, fast-moving - and please! Check out that gunfight again.
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful: "I just want my life back." - Yeah, me too..., 26 July 2007 Author: Paul Andrews (poolandrews@hotmail.com) from UK
Assassins starts as Robert Rath (Sylvester Stallone) the absolute no. 1 hit-man in the entire world, no make that universe (all the hit men everywhere probably meet up once a year for a hit-man competition to find the best...) is hired by his shadowy mysterious boss to kill a bloke named Alan Branch (Steve Kahan) at a funeral. Unfortunately before Rath can make the hit another hit-man named Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas) shoots Branch, Rath decides he's had enough & wants to retire from the hit-man business. Rath teams up with computer surveillance expert Electra (Julianne Moore) & bribe his boss with a computer disk full of sensitive information, his boss doesn't like being bribed & calls in Miguel to assassinate Rath & get the disk...This American French co-production was co-produced & directed by Richard Donner & is an overlong bore of an action thriller. The script by Andy Wachowski his brother Larry & Brian Helgeland starts off pretty well to be fair to it but then descends into one of the most boring & drawn out finales I've ever seen set in a bank & rundown hotel. The action scenes lack any excitement, there are no fights or anything we haven't seen 100's of times before & even a potentially good car chase ends up being rather flat & dull. Then there's the so-called twist at the end about who Rath's boss is, I'm sorry but this is one of the most predictable & frankly bland twists in cinematic history & I can't believe that it would come as a great surprise to anyone. Having said that the rest of the film is predictable as well but that ending must have took all of 60 seconds to come up with. Then there's the annoying character's especially Electra who has an irritating fluffy cat for it's cuteness value, urgh. I didn't like it when I saw several years ago & I still don't like it having re-watched it again, not one of the better big budget action flicks from the 90's.Director Donner does nothing special, there's not much style or visual flair here & the action scenes have no life or excitement at all. Most of the action scenes involve people shooting at each other which just becomes dull, I mean Rath & Bain can shoot anyone with deadly accuracy but when they start firing at each other they lose their perfect aim very quickly. He even manages to ruin what could have been a cool car chase. The ending should also have been cut down to move along quicker as it feels like it goes on forever.With a supposed budget of about $50,000,000 Assassins deservedly tanked at the box office when Se7en (1995) murdered it there, it's well made with that Hollywood polish & has high production values though. Apparently the lead role was written for Sean Connery but he couldn't make it while both Michael Douglas & Arnold Schwarzenegger were also considered before it went to Stallone who after just making Jugde Dredd (1995) didn't need another big flop on his hands although the reported $20,000,000 he was paid to star in Assassins probably eased the pain a bit. Woody Harrelson & Tom Cruise were consider for the role of Miguel Bain before Christian Slater was offered it but turned it down & it eventually went to Banderas. I have to say I think the acting is poor especially from the ever annoying Julianne Moore & the frankly awful Stallone.Assassins is a bland totally forgettable & unexciting supposed action thriller that succeeds as neither, at one point Julianne Moore's character Electra says 'I just want my life back' & when Assassins had finished I knew exactly how she felt...
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