MAN FROM TORONTO, THE
(director: Patrick Hughes; screenwriters: Robbie Fox, Chris Bremner/story by Fox & Jason Blumenthal; cinematographer: Rob Hardy; editor: Craig Alpert; music: Ramin Djawadi; cast:Kevin Hart (Teddy Jackson), Woody Harrelson (Randy, The Man From Toronto), Jasmine Mathews (Lori ), Kaley Cuoco (Anne), Pierson Fode (The Man From Miami), Ellen Barkin (The Handler), Jencarlos Canela (Agent Santoro), Lela Loren (Danniela Mann); Runtime: 110; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch; Netflix; 2022)
“This is the kind of vacuous film you could have sworn you saw before and swear you won’t again.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A big-budget stylish action comedy that laid an egg. It was filmed in Ontario. Besides being emotionally uninvolving what it lacks is believable characters, buddies who have a chemistry together, humor and good action sequences. If you see it all the way through you should get a laugh or two from the motormouth comedian Kevin Hart playing his usual comedy shtick of a cowardly screw-up alter-ego of himself. The retro buddy movie is flatly directed by the Australian Patrick Hughes (“Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard”/”Red Hill”) from a story by Robbie Fox & Jason Blumenthal and a script by Fox and Chris Bremner. This is the kind of vacuous film you could have sworn you saw before and swear you won’t see again.
Teddy (Kevin Hart) is a struggling idea man and fitness guru for his friend’s gym, who gets fired for being inept. He digs his wife Lori (Jasmine Mathews), who digs him. But his lack of success in his career makes her wary of him as a breadwinner. To brighten the mood of their relationship, he takes her on a romantic birthday weekend to a scenic resort in Onancock, Virginia. After dropping his wife off at the spa, he gets the wrong directions to their AirBnB. He instead comes to a place where the ruthless hitman The Man From Toronto (Woody Harrelson), who belongs to a crime organization where the hired killers are identified by the city where they come from, is scheduled to torture some top-secret information out of an international criminal. Somehow the FBI gets Teddy to help bring down the criminal global network after the confusion of his role in the torture gets cleared-up.
With a plot like that, of a silly mistaken-identity farce, you better be funny or have some good action scenes up your sleeve. The film has neither. It makes even an Abbott and Costello flick look like a cinematic gem in comparison.
The B-film has little going for it besides its dullness, stupidity and gall to think this is funny.
REVIEWED ON 7/14/2022 GRADE: D