The Assignment

Is this CGI?

It seems like the sun is directly outside these windows, no matter what angle the camera is shooting at? And it kinda looks fake, but then most films do these days, due to excessive colour grading…

Anyway, this is a Walter Hill movie? I guess I bought it because it features Sigourney Weaver, because she often picks fun movies to be in.

Hm. I thought this was somebody else? But who am I thinking of? Oh!

Walter Hill, Michael Mann… same same…

Walter Hill produced Alien and stuff. Hm…

Oh!

OK, then I guess I do remember who Walter Hill is.

Was this a really low budget movie?

Yeah, I guess. I mean, not super duper low, but…

Is that Sigourney with a beard? Everything here looks so fake…

Perhaps we’re supposed to notice the fake beard and it’s a plot thing?

I guess it isn’t Sigourney after all? But she’s accused of heinous human experiments, so perhaps this guy is an experiment? So far I’m liking this movie, even if everything looks so odd.

The oddest thing about this doctor is that she applies mascara to her patients.

Housekeeping!

Oh, it wasn’t Sigourney, it was Michelle Rodriguez! Plot twist!

Oops, spoilers.

As revenges go, it seems pretty elaborate — Sigourney (mad doctor) made a hitman into Michelle Rodriguez as revenge for killing her brother or something. It seems like a pretty large expenditure… and is that really an effective revenge, anyway?

Hey! Is this like a send-up of a thriller? That makes more sense…

Yeah… they’re just having fun with clichés and an absurd plot? And it is indeed pretty entertaining.

It’s an odd movie. Sigourney Weaver has a tendency to pop up in these movies, but I wonder how this movie came to be. It’s a low budget oddball movie, and even from the script it must be obvious that it wouldn’t have much of a general appeal.

And indeed, few people liked this movie:

“The Assignment” is an embarrassment all around, a murky, regrettable piece of gutter cinema. Next year’s Razzie Awards race starts here.

But no — it’s to odd to land on the Razzie Awards, too.

I liked it! I thought it was interesting, and both Rodriguez and Weaver are great here. It needed a higher budget, because that awful fake beard (and other er fake bits) gave away the gag straight away. But I like that somebody would put in this much work on a doomed film.

The Assignment. Walter Hill. 2016. ⚃