A gimmick sci-fi actioner buckles up for a wild streaming ride

There’s an old adage that says the best video game movies aren’t based on existing video games, but even then, the prospect of an entire first-person feature unfolding sounded like little more than a gimmick. That may be the case, depending on how you’re feeling hardcore henry.

The zany sci-fi action thriller grossed less than $20 million at the box office and garnered a response from critics and audiences that could generously be described as lukewarm, but behind the experimentally insane adventure lies a growing wave of recognition, cult classic status grows closer and closer.

The titular character is played by a variety of cinematographers and stunt doubles, with Henry waking up to find he has risen from the dead as a human-robot hybrid before a woman claiming to be his wife is kidnapped right before his eyes . Our vengeful hero sends him on a killing spree, decimating anyone who stands in his way as he sets out to save the world along the way.

hardcore henry is definitely not a movie for everyone, but it has garnered plenty of support from the iTunes subscriber base this week, with FlixPatrol highlighting the intricate caper as one of the platform’s most-watched features.

There was talk of a sequel for a while, but the $10 million rights purchase made the profit margins razor-thin once the numbers were out, leaving it to live on in shame as a wholly unique and ambitiously blown explosion of action-packed invention — which, all in all, isn’t a bad legacy.