Film Review: "The Assignment" (2016).

"One job changed it all" in The Assignment (also known as Tomboy, (Re) Assignment and Tomboy: A Revenger's Tale). This action crime thriller film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Denis Hamill. After being double-crossed, a hit man becomes a hit woman with help from a rogue surgeon. Accompanied by a nurse named Johnnie, she sets out for revenge.

In 1978, Hamill wrote the first draft of a script called Tom Boy. It was about a juvenile delinquent who rapes and murders a woman whose husband is a plastic surgeon. He's arrested and goes to prison, but the surgeon captures him and turns him into a woman. The character goes on to commit a series of murders. Hill optioned the script with his own money around ten years after he first read it. He tried to write a different version but could not get it to work. He put the project aside until he found a copy of the first draft fifteen years later. He believed he knew how to do it this time and re-optioned the script. Hill had success releasing a graphic novel in France and was looking for a follow up. He wrote up the project as a graphic novel. Hill's agent introduced him to a producer, Said Ben Said, who was willing to invest. By early November 2015, Michelle Rodriguez, Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia, Paul McGillion, Caitlin Gerard and Sigourney Weaver were cast. At the same time, with a budget of $5 million, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in early December. Filming took place in Vancouver and Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.

The film stars Rodriguez, Shalhoub, LaPaglia, McGillion, Gerard and Weaver. The film is a star vehicle for Rodriguez first and foremost, giving her a potentially intriguing antihero character surrounded by a story that shoots blanks. At its ridiculous best the film reminds us why we liked Weaver in the first place. But time has moved on, for her and for us and there's a point where looking back this way stops being entertaining and starts to become sad.

Will appeal to certain audiences, and those hoping for silly fun in the vein of throwaway one-liners and axe-fight showdowns will not be disappointed. For others, Rodriguez's latest is best viewed on smaller screens, if at all. I can hardly call the film bad; it's just so bland on pretty much every level that there's not much to say but 'meh'. Although the film comes nowhere near the pantheon of the great buddy movies, and some fans of the original graphic novel might wince at the changes, there's enough fun to be had. A big, dumb action film that charges forward believing Rodriguez is charismatic enough to sell even bad writing. She's not. The roar dies into a hollow echo, the growl gets gutturally one-note and the grit becomes B-movie background. Has too scuzzy a heart to pump out a deep throb of action. Peel this one back and you get more pit than pulp.

Simon says The Assignment receives:

Also, see my review for Bullet to the Head.