Leave Me Stallone: Assassins (1995)

 A Film brought to you by an unexpected combo- The Director of Superman- The Movie and the Writers of The Matrix.

No, really.

This is Assassins, a 1995 Film with, of course, Stallone as the Lead.  Richard Donner is at the helm and, yes, the Wachowskis did write this.
Granted- there were many rewrites done (by Brian Helegeland) and they were not happy!  Even so, their credit stuck.

The Plot involves an Assassin taking work when a rival shows up.  Is he the new target?
He's given one more assignment with a big payout and, yeah, you can see where this is going.

Can he stop his younger, cockier rival?  To find out, read on...

Robert Rath (Stallone) is an older (but not old- he's the Star!) Hitman.

He's given an assignment to take out a Mobster at his Brother's Funeral.

To reuse my joke from an old Seagal Film Review, 'this does save time, no?'

Before he can shoot the guy (using a gun hidden in a fake cast), another guy- Antonio Banderas- does it instead.

The pair have a shoot-out while the Cops clear the bystanders away.

Banderas is arrested, but kills the cops to escape.

Rath takes a $2 million dollar job to stop a Hacker from giving some Data to some Dutch Buyers.

She's Julianne Moore and dresses like a character in The Matrix.  That tracks.

However, Banderas is there too, killing the buyers (who were actually feds), but failing to catch her when Rath decides to protect her (and her cat).

I actually do like this Film, but I also love to laugh at old tech.

This computer gives them both their assignments (and leads to a reveal later).

Could you even run Quake on that thing?

He continues to target the duo, leading to lots of good and tense Action Scenes.  Hell, we even get a Poor Bastard of Cinema out of it maybe.

It all climaxes at her Apartment which Stallone blows up.

Banderas puts a table in front of the blast, falls out a second story window...and is fine.

After a failed attempt to stop them in Seattle, the climax takes place in Puerto Rico.

Banderas stalks Stallone outside of the same Bank where he killed his Russian Rival ten years prior.

Of course, Stallone has this as a trap for him too!

Who will come out on top?
I mean, you can probably guess, but I won't SPOIL it here.  The End.

A Stallone Film from this Ser that I like?  Is that possible?

Thanks to the talented people involved- on-camera and off- the Film is much better than I expected.  It doesn't try to be a Stallone Fantasy about Crime and it doesn't Cast him so against type that he just looks bored.

Banderas really brings the fresh energy to this, which is evident even later when he returns for The Expendables 3.  He's quite fun.

Don't get me wrong- it's not perfect.

For some reason, they have a Day of the Dead Festival taking place in Puerto Rico...which doesn't celebrate it nationally.  
It also gets a bit bloated as it goes from Act 2 to Act 3, which stands out in contrast to the tight pacing of the rest of the Film.

At worst, the Film is an Action Movie that revels in the silly aspects.  At best, it is a very good Action Movie with good Writing, Casting, Production Values and Direction.

Finally, a Film to close up this set that I don't want to flush.  No- bad kitty!

Next up, I recently bought another Stallone Film that is dying for a review.  Yo soy le ley!