Latest news with #OldGuy
The Guardian
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Old Guy review – Christoph Waltz is grumpy hitman on verge of retirement in action comedy
Action legend Simon West (the director of Con Air, the first Lara Croft and The Mechanic) has put together a pretty moderate comedy-thriller with screenwriter Greg Johnson; the collective star power in its (undoubtedly) impressive cast isn't quite strong enough to make it come alive. It is set in Belfast and Northern Ireland — perhaps because of production funding requirements. There is a slightly weird moment in which Lucy Liu's character, speaking from a bar in London's Soho, says wistfully of Belfast: 'I've always wanted to go there … it's got a great music scene.' Perfectly true, of course, but there is something rather autopilot about the way she delivers the line. Christoph Waltz plays an ageing and dissolute hitman called Danny Dolinski whose trigger finger is seizing up with arthritis, so his exasperated handler tells him he has to retire, but before that, he must mentor a new, up-and-coming assassin called Wihlborg, played by Cooper Hoffman, who is an uptight, no-drinking-and-smoking gen Z-er. Together, they must go out on a job to whack a certain someone on a Northern Irish golf course, but grumpy Danny figures he will do the killing while this young upstart can just watch how a master does the business. And along the way they run into Danny's friend Anata (Liu) for whom Danny may have feelings. Old Guy is always acted with commitment and Hoffman shows he has the chops for a bigger role (his management may be minded to get him to bulk up in the gym for mainstream leading men parts). Three big names doing a professional job … but the target isn't found. Old Guy is in UK and Irish cinemas from 7 March and on digital platforms from 10 March.
Arab Times
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab Times
‘Old Guy' has style, but it's no bull's-eye
LOS ANGELES, Feb 22, (AP): A boomer hit man is given a nightmare final assignment to train his own Gen Z replacement in Simon West's lifeless action-comedy 'Old Guy.' Christoph Waltz's Danny Dolinski is the one at an unwelcome crossroads in the film. He's only partially healed from a hand injury that's rendered him dependent on pills and unable to aim a gun as well as he used to. Dolinski also seems to be in the throes of a full crisis: We meet him not on the job, or even in flashback to his pre-injury glory, but out clubbing. The next morning, Dolinski emerges in a bathrobe to gaze proudly upon the several much younger women who have spent the night. But a room full of scantily clothed model-types who seem to be there willingly is only a temporary balm for poor Dolinski. While he might still be a viable specimen for the 20-something party girls of London, his game does not hold the same appeal in the workplace. Soon he'll be getting the dreaded 'we're going younger' talk from his boss, and she's talking about him, not his love interests. This is a guy who is certain he's got a lot left to give in the assassin game, and not as a mentor to a 'hitman prodigy,' as Cooper Hoffman's character Wihlborg is described. Is a familiar conceit like the wise veteran and the cocksure newcomer tired or a classic? Well, it's all in the execution. And 'Old Guy,' stylishly filmed though it may be, is not one of the better attempts, likely hampered by the script from Greg Johnson. Generational clashes should be easy enough comedic fodder for a screenwriter and two capable actors, but here it lands with a thud. One likes to drink! The other doesn't even like to be around alcohol! The more serious ethical questions about hitman etiquette are similarly inelegant. Take this gem from Wihlborg: 'Where I come from one does what one needs to do to survive. That includes killing a kid.' Prodigy Hoffman, so perfect leading 'Licorice Pizza,' is not served well by this script, which never quite justifies why he's such a prodigy at such a young age and doesn't give him or Waltz any room to play off one another in a natural way. Waltz also can't seem to choose a lane with Danny, an eccentric hedonist with a soul who doesn't think it's necessary to kill kids on the job. He's also working with his normal accent which is all well and good until the movie very unnecessarily introduces his Irish mother. And because action movies of this variety need a woman, Lucy Liu, who deserves much, much better than this (they all do, but mostly her), goes along for the ride. Her character Anata is the glamorous manager of a Soho karaoke bar that might also be a front for a brothel, but that's never really explored. What is deemed important here is that she's Dolinski's longtime confidante, and tags along on their mission to Belfast for…wait for it…a date. It's a very strange little subplot in which Anata does go to this date only to be broken up with. The guy she's been seeing is not connected to the larger plot in any way, except as the narrative push to have her ultimately fall in Dolinski's arms. West is an action and studio system veteran behind 'Con Air,' 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' and various Jason Statham vehicles. There's lots of shoot-em-up action and bullets to the head for anyone looking for that, but not much more to hang on to. 'Old Guy' feels very of this moment in the fact that it looks good and has a good cast and yet can't seem to deliver something that's either entertaining or meaningful. But unlike so many of its peers, this one amazingly was not made by a streamer. 'Old Guy,' a The Avenue release in limited theaters and on VOD Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for 'language, violence, some drug use.' Running time: 93 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Old Guy': Christoph Waltz talks about working with Philip Seymour Hoffman's son, Cooper Hoffman
A powerhouse duo, Christoph Waltz and Lucy Liu, team up for the action-comedy movie Old Guy (now in select theatres and on digital). Directed by Simon West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider), the film also starring Philip Seymour Hoffman's son, Cooper Hoffman. Waltz plays hitman Danny Dolinski, who's aging out of his career, dealing with arthritis after joint fusion surgery, making shooting a gun tricky, but he still loves to drink and party. Still clinging to his career, his boss reassigns Dolinski to train a young prodigy in the world of hit men, Wihlborg (Hoffman). Liu plays Dolinski's long-time friend Anata, who ends up joining him and Wihlborg on their assignment, and she seems to be the object of Dolinski's unrequited love. When asked about collaborating with Liu and Hoffman, Waltz identified that the environment on set was "unusually harmonious." "I am a very impatient person, so I tolerate no one who gets on my nerves, and people get on my nerves very easily, but Cooper didn't, nor did Lucy, not even Simon," Waltz said. "It was unusually harmonious." Waltz, who spend a significant portion of the film with Hoffman, described the 21-year-old actor as a "lovely" person, who's ahead many young men his age. But in terms of what appealed to Waltz about working with West as the director of Old Guy, the two-time Oscar winner said that it was West's collaboration throughout the project. "Way before ... they even started prepping, we were talking about the script and the characters, and he was extremely open," Waltz said. "And if I sense a gap, I'm happy to fill it." "So he gave me plenty of opportunity. ... And talking about it and coming up with ideas. ... That's what I found extremely appealing." Liu echoed Waltz's comments about the Old Guy director, adding that the director wasn't "afraid" to talk about things that could be shifted when filming the movie. "If there was something that didn't seem true or honest in the moment, he was open to changing it and making it more effective for that time, in that moment," Liu said. "I think oftentimes they're like, ... 'Sure, whatever you want.' And then when you get there, it's actually not that. And in this case, he was really willing to creatively change scenes in order to make them work." "I think that really helps when you're working on a movie with this length, and also with with a very small cast. And of course there's pressure to get everything done in the certain amount of time and make your day. And he never made you feel like you were rushing. ... And he's obviously worked on very big movies, so it's nice that he wants to do movies that he has more creative control over, regardless of the box office, essentially, which I think that's a wonderful thing."
New York Times
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Old Guy' Review: The Veteran and the Rookie
'Old Guy' is billed as an action movie but it is actually more of a fantasy film. It imagines a world in which an aging hit man kills his targets without consequence before retreating to nightclubs where scads of beautiful young women compete to accompany him home. Presumably Danny Dolinski (Christoph Waltz) has been enjoying such a lifestyle for decades. But when the movie begins, his bosses consider his contract killing career to be approaching its natural conclusion because of the joint pain afflicting his trigger finger. Dolinski would prefer to stay in the game, but Opal, the director of The Company (Ann Akinjirin) insists that he serve as a mentor to Wihlborg (Cooper Hoffman), a promising, and youthful, assassin. So begins a familiar story of the veteran and the rookie, updated to include snide observations about Gen-Z style trends. Between this odd couple, Wihlborg is designed as sympathetic — he is given an arbitrary back story in foster care — but Dolinski is clearly meant as our hero, joined by a damsel in a low-cut dress (Lucy Liu). The director Simon West strains to frame Dolinski as a witty cad whose embittered demeanor (and murderous vocation) belie a sturdy moral code. Beyond the stale plot and groaners that make up the dialogue, 'Old Guy' suffers from haphazard pacing, as if every third scene was cut out in postproduction. Watching, one wonders who this movie is for — even within the target demographic stated in the title. Old Guy Rated R for guys shooting guns. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms.
Associated Press
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Movie Review: Hit man pic ‘Old Guy' has style, but it's no bull's-eye
A boomer hit man is given a nightmare final assignment to train his own Gen Z replacement in Simon West's lifeless action-comedy 'Old Guy.' Christoph Waltz's Danny Dolinski is the one at an unwelcome crossroads in the film. He's only partially healed from a hand injury that's rendered him dependent on pills and unable to aim a gun as well as he used to. Dolinski also seems to be in the throes of a full crisis: We meet him not on the job, or even in flashback to his pre-injury glory, but out clubbing. The next morning, Dolinski emerges in a bathrobe to gaze proudly upon the several much younger women who have spent the night. But a room full of scantily clothed model-types who seem to be there willingly is only a temporary balm for poor Dolinski. While he might still be a viable specimen for the 20-something party girls of London, his game does not hold the same appeal in the workplace. Soon he'll be getting the dreaded 'we're going younger' talk from his boss, and she's talking about him, not his love interests. This is a guy who is certain he's got a lot left to give in the assassin game, and not as a mentor to a 'hitman prodigy,' as Cooper Hoffman's character Wihlborg is described. Is a familiar conceit like the wise veteran and the cocksure newcomer tired or a classic? Well, it's all in the execution. And 'Old Guy,' stylishly filmed though it may be, is not one of the better attempts, likely hampered by the script from Greg Johnson. Generational clashes should be easy enough comedic fodder for a screenwriter and two capable actors, but here it lands with a thud. One likes to drink! The other doesn't even like to be around alcohol! The more serious ethical questions about hitman etiquette are similarly inelegant. Take this gem from Wihlborg: 'Where I come from one does what one needs to do to survive. That includes killing a kid.' Hoffman, so perfect leading 'Licorice Pizza,' is not served well by this script, which never quite justifies why he's such a prodigy at such a young age and doesn't give him or Waltz any room to play off one another in a natural way. Waltz also can't seem to choose a lane with Danny, an eccentric hedonist with a soul who doesn't think it's necessary to kill kids on the job. He's also working with his normal accent which is all well and good until the movie very unnecessarily introduces his Irish mother. And because action movies of this variety need a woman, Lucy Liu, who deserves much, much better than this (they all do, but mostly her), goes along for the ride. Her character Anata is the glamorous manager of a Soho karaoke bar that might also be a front for a brothel, but that's never really explored. What is deemed important here is that she's Dolinski's longtime confidante, and tags along on their mission to Belfast for…wait for it…a date. It's a very strange little subplot in which Anata does go to this date only to be broken up with. The guy she's been seeing is not connected to the larger plot in any way, except as the narrative push to have her ultimately fall in Dolinski's arms. West is an action and studio system veteran behind 'Con Air,' 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' and various Jason Statham vehicles. There's lots of shoot-em-up action and bullets to the head for anyone looking for that, but not much more to hang on to. 'Old Guy' feels very of this moment in the fact that it looks good and has a good cast and yet can't seem to deliver something that's either entertaining or meaningful. But unlike so many of its peers, this one amazingly was not made by a streamer. 'Old Guy,' a The Avenue release in limited theaters and on VOD Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for 'language, violence, some drug use.' Running time: 93 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
