Assassins

Year of release : 1995

Run time : 2h13m

Genre : Action / Thriller

Cast : Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas, Julianne Moore

Robert Rath is an assassin, who is taking one of his marks to the wetlands to k1ll him. The man was an assassin too, and cries about how he took all the jobs Rath didn’t want to take, k1lling innocents. He asks Rath to let him die with dignity, and not just sho0t him the way they k1ll a mark, so Rath gives him a gun. The man sho0ts himself.

Back home, Rath talks through messages on the internet with the one giving him assignments. He wants to quit, being haunted by a job he did in 1980, k1lling his friend, Nicolai.

Still, he takes on a new assignment, to k1ll a tycoon, at the memorial service of his brother.

Rath shows up with an arm in a cast where he has hidden the gun, but he doesn’t have time to sho0t, as another assassin, disguised as a cemetery groundskeeper, sho0ts him. Rath spots him in the mayhem caused by the shot, and fires at him. This causes the assassin to sho0t at him too, and they battle it out for a while. Due to the assassin being the only one with a riffle, he is taken into police custody.

The assassin dislocates his thumb, and gets out of the handcuffs, causing an accident, getting out of the police car.

Thinking he wants to get to the airport, Rath steals a cab, and waits for the right call, meaning his assassin.

The man shows up, wanting to go to the airport. Seeing Rath doesn’t take the route to the airport, the assassin recognizes him. He presents himself as Miguel Bain, and a fan of his. Miguel asks him to drive, but Rath refuses, so Miguel threatens with k1lling an innocent, so he does as told.

Miguel grows impatient, and is trying to jump out of the car while Rath drives it, but Rath drives very close to a bus, trying to k1ll him. He doesn’t succeed, and ends up followed by the police.

Miguel seems to know a lot about Rath and his friend, Nicolai, and he thinks he k1lled him to become the number one assassin, as the 2 of them were the best. Miguel tells him he wants to become the best in this business. He manages to get out of his cab, and Rath drives the cab into the taxi base, to escape the police who was following him including with a helicopter.

Trying to find out why was another assassin assigned to his job, he is being offered 2 million dollars to k1ll a surveillance expert and information thief, who stole data and wants to sell it to some Dutch buyers. There’s no picture or name, they only know it’s a woman, and her internet logo, Meow, with cat’s eyes.

The woman has a cat named Pearl, whom she seems to be obsessed of. She also seems to be obsessed (stalker vibes) with her neighbours, having cameras installed in their apartments (in the fire alarm), watching them all the time.

She goes to a meeting, and taking the elevator, she sprays a woman’s fur coat (I didn’t find that display of damage of property, impressive).

At the hotel she stays at, she arranges the terms of how to be given the money for the computer disk she’s selling.

Rath finds her, and so does Miguel.

Miguel k1lls the men she was doing business with, and just when he’s about to get to her, Rath finds her. And takes her with him. Miguel goes through the things she left behind, and finds out where she lives through her cat pictures.

The woman, who tells Rath her name is Electra, runs away from him (she was driving her car with Rath in the passenger’s seat), leaving her cat behind (in the bus station), taking a bus.

Rath goes to the vet who’s address was on the cat’s cage, and finds her place.

Electra is home, packing things up, trying to leave, but she sees Miguel in her neighbours’ apartment, and Rath comes into her house (as she left the door wide open), bringing her the cat.

Rath tells her to leave, she does, but she comes back when she sees one of her neighbours.

Miguel is k1lling her neighbours trying to get to her. He goes through her things, and notices her perfume is jasmine (this is how he recognizes her after).

Rath catches Electra right before she walks straight into Miguel, and blows the place up, in order to get away from him.

He decides to protect Electra, and takes her with him. He is also worried that he might be a mark too, due to how things evolve.

I personally enjoyed the movie, it’s action packed.

I didn’t find the leads likeable, as in, Rath was an assassin, k1lling people for money (he k1lled his own friend !), while Electra was a thief (also, she has no survival skills, as she keeps on leaving her apartment door wide open when she knows k1llers are after her, and goes to a parade when again, she knows Miguel is after her! ). She spies on her neighbours, watching them all the time, being a voyeur. She also drops her cat to catch the bus, when she says she loves the cat! Miguel is driven by his obsession to be number one. By the way, he falls from the 3d or 4^th floor, in the explosion, but he’s fine, somehow!

I liked the cat.

The acting was good. I found Antonio Banderas funny, due to how he was acting.

The visual effects were good.

The soundtrack was what you’d expect from a movie of that era, I personally didn’t like it.

The original script was written by The Wachowskis, and was completely re-written by Brian Helgeland, to the point they wanted their names removed from the credits (there was supposed to be a love story between the leads, the movie was more violent, and the lead not as sympathetic, and the end didn’t involve Nicolai).

Assassins received ratings under 45% from the critics and audiences of Rotten Tomatoes.

Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a B, while the IMDB one, a 6.3 out of 10 .

The movie grossed 83.3 million dollars at the box office, against a production budget of 50 million.

Rating : Worth a watch !