Movie review: ‘Assassins’

FloridaGator80

At first glance, you might think that “Assassins” from 1995 with Sylvester Stallone is similar to his film “The Specialist” from the previous year. In both he plays a “getting-out-of-the-game” expert – a no-frills killer in “Assassins” and a bomber with technical skills in the other. In both, he has a top-notch female co-star (Sharon Stone in the earlier effort and Julianne Moore in this one). If you saw the first, then you probably thought “Assassins” would have the same flaws – a paper-thin screenplay and just mediocre work from its headliners and supporting cast. You couldn’t be any more wrong. “Assassins” isn’t an excellent or even great film, but it is good with an intelligent script, great pacing and while the end is predictable it is done well enough not to be tagged as too stereotypical. Give it a chance because of director Richard Donner and since it is easy to find.

‘Assassins’
(1995; 132 minutes; rated R; directed by Richard Donner and starring Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas and Julianne Moore)

IT’S A DEADLY GAME HE WANTS TO LEAVE

(NOTE: I expanded this review with some more opinion, additional trivia and the updating of links on April 21, 2018. I again expanded the review on July 15, 2024.)

It wouldn’t be my first thought that a Sylvester Stallone action film would have truly excellent writing roots, but, unlike his film “The Specialist” from 1994, he had the cinematically talented Wachowski brothers (you know, the creative genius team behind “The Matrix” franchise) at the pen for his 1995 effort “Assassins” with Antonio Banderas.

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Now “Assassins” isn’t as complicated as “The Matrix” and the then-Wachowski brothers Andy and Larry (now, they’re Wachowski sisters Lilly and Lana) would become upset with what happened to their screenplay – they lost an appeal to the Writer’s Guild to have their names removed from the film’s credits – but it was their overall creativity in play and the film shows by being much better than “The Specialist.”

In “Assassins,” Stallone plays “Robert Rath” and he’s an assassin who’s burned out and wants to quit but is having a difficult time pulling the trigger (in more ways than one and it’s a really nice pun). He gets a contract to kill a man at a funeral service, but he’s muscled out by the young, up-and-coming Banderas as “Miguel Bain.” It almost instantly becomes obvious that Banderas wants to usurp Stallone’s standing has the No. 1 hitman and put his competition out in a very permanent way. In the meantime, the film delves into Stallone’s character and how he deals with having killed a friend and mentor years before.

The two killers collide on another contract but this time Stallone winds up with the intended mark: Julianne Moore as the elusive computer expert “Electra.” It’s now a race between the two men, who are being directed by an unseen person whose messages are delivered via computer.

Once the pieces of the final contract are completed by each man, a showdown between the has been set up … and it’s a replay of how Stallone shot his friend 15 years before and how he plans to get Banderas. It all comes to a very predictable conclusion and I won’t do a spoiler alert here, but you’d have to be pretty inexperienced with movies not to see this one coming a mile off.

Now, for a look at your three headliners:

  • A three-time Oscar nominee (not for this one) and a Golden Globe winner and two-time nominee, Stallone, who you find out that “Joseph” is his true name, for the most part appears as if he is playing just for pay here. However, his talent is actually solid and this gives some strength to his character and his effort. Of course, Stallone is both “Rambo” and “Rocky” and it isn’t easy to become one defining character in cinema, much less two. Stallone’s initial portrayal of “John Rambo” was in “First Blood” and he was an anti-hero who squared off with cops. His acting in “Rocky” got him one Oscar nomination and writing in it another and his third nomination was for “Creed.” Oddly, he won his Globe for “Creed” but was only nominated for the iconic lead character “Rocky.” Stallone is just as noted for his action films including the wonderful “Demolition Man” (click here to read my review) with Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock and its prescient look at the future as well as being a cop in “Nighthawks” (click here to read my review) with Billy Dee Williams. I also liked his work in a couple of appearances on TV’s “Las Vegas” as “Frank the Repairman” with Jimmy Caan!
  • An Oscar nominee and three-time Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Banderas has the most energetic character as his killer has too much nervous energy to sit still much less be an effective killer – but he is (at least this is a movie). He is perfectly offhand, dismissive and easily expresses an underlying cruel streak in his character. Banderas uses all his tools here: his looks, his voice and most certainly his eyes and expression. Good job, Antonio. He was much better in the simply terrific “Desperado” from director Robert Rodriguez and was in “The Expendables 3” with Stallone. Banderas’ Globe nominations came from two films (“The Mask of Zorro” and “Evita”) and one for TV’s “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself.” He was nominated for the Oscar for “Pain and Glory” from 2020.
  • You might think Oscar winner and four-time nominee (not for this one) Moore would be somewhat miscast here, but you’d be wrong. While she doesn’t do the work she did for her nomination for “Boogie Nights,” Moore is at least solid here. However, she never manages to push the character in the spectacular or even elevated status and her relationship with her cat is more noise and distraction than helping her establish the character. BTW … you find out that her real name is “Anna.” It’s possible that the Wachowskis had something different in mind and it was changed. Who knows? Who cares today? Moore was also in “Magnolia” and “The Big Lebowski.” Frankly, I’m not that impressed with her, probably because of her other nominations being the weepy snifflebags “The End of the Affair,” “The Hours” and “Far from Heaven.” Her win was for 2014’s snifflebag called “Still Alice.” Yawn.

After the trifecta at top billing for “Assassins,” you don’t get much out of the supporting cast and there’s not even one who I would say is worth singling out. It’s not that any of it is truly horrible acting or embarrassing work here, but it is just nothing special or notable … or even an actor who went on to bigger and better things.

Director Richard Donner has had a prolific career with 68 credits for directing films over five decades (his last directing effort was in 2006) and he’s had a variety of work including three “Lethal Weapon” films, two “Superman” films and even delved (with excellent results) in the horror genre with the exceptional “The Omen” from 1976 – click here for my review. Donner died of at 90 in 2021.

Still, there something missing with “Assassins” that meant it would never break out as a monster hit. I can’t put my finger on any one thing, but there’s small things such as when Banderas pirouettes around a room killing people – I know Donner was trying to make it look like it’s some kind of macabre ballet (the imagery is certainly heavy-handed), but it just comes off as somewhat silly. Yet, there’s an interesting scene with Stallone driving a cab and Banderas in the back seat, but they can’t shoot each other because of bullet-resistant glass between them.

It was reported later that Donner said “Assassins” would have been much better if he had swapped Stallone and Banderas for the characters they played. I don’t know, I’d say it was done right, but he’s probably looking at the end product as mostly deficient. I’d say it is certainly better than that … not perfect, but certainly better than deficient.

“Assassins” was the 59th ranked film of 1995 with $30.3 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. Worldwide it made $83.5 million on its $50 million budget, according to Wiki.  The top film was Disney’s animated blockbuster “Toy Story” with $191.7 million and here are the other films from the year that I’ve reviewed through my blog:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Donner’s birth name was Richard Donald Schwartzberg; Stallone’s middle name is Gardenzio; and Moore’s birth name is Julie Anne Smith.
  • In what would have been an odd choice of casting, Sean Connery was intended to play the role ultimately done by Stallone. Really? Connery instead of Stallone? That’s just too strange to contemplate, but Sean would have at least given it an interesting go.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “Stallone became the sixth actor (after Bing Crosby, Peter O’Toole, Al Pacino, Paul Newman, and Cate Blanchett) to be twice nominated for an Oscar for portraying the same character; he had previously portrayed Rocky Balboa in Rocky (1976).”
  • Michael Douglas was also considered for Stallone’s part, as was Arnold Schwarzenegger. It would have been pure foolishness to cast Douglas, but certainly interesting to have had Arnie. I don’t dislike Douglas, but it’s just not … him.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “The buildings used for the “bank” and the “abandoned hotel” don’t really face each other. They are not even on the same street in San Juan, Puerto Rico.”
  • Stallone was reportedly paid $15 million for being in the film.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “Mel Gibson was initially interested in directing the film. He mentioned to his friend Richard Donner that it was a really great script. Then, when Gibson got heavily involved with Braveheart (1995), the project found its way to Donner.”
  • Nearly every shot fired in “Assassins” is by a weapon equipped with a silencer. I wrote “nearly” since I read a trivia page that said they all were and I didn’t want to re-watch the whole film again just to check.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: Trademark … “Richard Donner: [Political Statements] The buses all have anti NRA signs on them; Electra is spraying a coat made out of fur with red paint; a big sign on the front door of the pet shop writes ‘We won’t sell pets – Please adopt one;’ a female customer in the café is wearing a Pro-choice T-shirt.”

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