Assassins ** (1995, Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas, Julianne Moore) – Classic Movie Review 8166

Director Richard Donner’s 1995 action thriller Assassins stars Sylvester Stallone, who offers a monolithic, by-the-numbers performance as a jaded contract killer hitman called Robert Rath who plans to retire after one last job. But soon ambitious young rival killer Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas) moves in on Sly’s final million-dollar contract, computer hacker and surveillance expert Electra (Julianne Moore). Bain now plans trying to kill Rath, who teams up with Electra to defeat Bain.

Banderas enjoys himself with his part as a long-haired psychopath, but poor old Stallone does not look as though he is having any fun at all, taking it way too seriously, in a mundane and mediocre action thriller where all the acting skills have been left at home.

Director Donner supplies computer-style guidance of the action, killing off the movie’s credibility along with so many of its characters. But it is a smart-looking production with a fine gloss thanks to Vilmos Zsigmond’s classy cinematography.

The screenplay is notable, in retrospect, as an early, apprentice work of The Matrix’s Wachowski siblings in tandem with the thriller writer expert Brian Helgeland. The story and screenplay are by Lilly Wachowski (as Andy Wachowski) and Lana Wachowski (as Larry Wachowski), with Helgeland also credited for the screenplay.

How did this take 17 credited producers? Among them are Dino De Laurentiis, Lauren Shuler Donner, Richard Donner, Bruce A Evans, Joel Silver, Jim Van Wyck, Andrew Lazar and Raynold Gideon.

Anatoli Davydov [Anatoly Davydov] plays Nicolai Tashlinkov. Also in the cast are Muse Watson, Steve Kahan, Kelly Rowan, Reed Diamond, Kai Wulff, Kerry Skalsky, James Douglas Haskins, Stephen Liska, John Harms, Edward J Rosen, Christina Orchid, Bruce R Orchid and James Oliver.

Assassins runs 132 minutes, is made by Warner Bros, Silver Pictures, Donner/ Shuler-Donner Productions, Dino De Laurentiis, Lazar, Evans-Gideon, Le Studio Canal +, and Les Productions Lazenec, is released by Warner Bros, is scored by Mark Mancina, and is designed by Thomas E Sanders.

It was costly at $50 million, did not fare too well in America, grossing $30 million, but ended up with a cumulative worldwide gross of $83 million.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8166

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