Following an ace assassin who is double crossed by gangsters and falls into the hands of rogue surgeon known as The Doctor who turns him into a woman. The hitman now a hitwoman sets out for revenge, aided by a nurse named Johnnie who also has secrets. After waking up and discovering that he has undergone gender reassignment surgery, an assassin seeks to find the doctor responsible. "I wouldn't make a movie that would hurt transgender people," Some of them have had a tough time of it, and the last thing I want to do is make anyone's road harder. But look, I understand the concern. Is it lurid? Yes. Is it lowbrow? Well, maybe. Is it offensive? No. I'm just trying to honor the B movies that we grew up with."<br/><br/>Perhaps Walter Hill thought when making "The Assignment" that this would be his recovery road - after the disastrous results of his last film (which was in 2012) "Bullet to the Head". A movie that at least attempted to be a B action thriller. Here with his latest film, Hill makes the mistake of creating an argument, rather than a point for all of it.<br/><br/>Dr. Rachel Kay (Sigourney Weaver) is a rogue doctor with a weird vision of a better world after losing her brother to a contract killer Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez). In an experiment to assess how much physical identity matters, Kay performs a sex-change operation on Kitchen to have him start over. And thus a revenge thriller is reputedly thrust in motion - but even that it fails to maintain. Hill and co-writer Denis Hamill understand the eccentricity of this story. Never once do they try to render Frank a human being, involuntarily subjected to gender reassignment surgery. Perhaps this is one of many unabashed flaws with "The Assignment". It tries to justify itself by saying it has nothing to do with gender reassignment, giving us a shoddy plot doused incomparably with poor direction, but that still can't make up for the disrespect it shows to the transgender community.<br/><br/>Frank (Rodriguez), never fully regards this or gives it a thought. Instead of giving us a thought provoking scene or moment of lucidity - Hill and Hamill evade this with lazy writing and poor dialogue. Michelle Rodriguez is fine. But that's all that can be said when viewing her performance, A scene in which she removes the bandages to see… ta-da! Michelle, beautiful and radiant. No scars or bruises. The film even tries to prove to us that she's a man by showing her wear a fake genital.<br/><br/>Did I mention this film has a villain? Yes, in the likes of Sigourney Weaver - "The Doctor", another character whose personality is also complex. She wants to change the world, one patient at a time while condescendingly ridiculing others with her knowledge of Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe - the only two credits that boost her intellect by this movie's standards. Her belief behind doing this is simple - She believes Frank will be liberated from his crimes, that living in the body of a woman is perhaps enough punishment as it for her - having spent much of her life scorned by men, now to be unmannerly asked by her doctor (Tony Shalhoub) a man, if the cause for this behavior is lack of sex. Not only does this demonstrate the cause for her actions, but gives a message of Misogyny. <br/><br/>Cinematographer James Liston acting probably on behalf of Hill, provides little to look at. Each scene feels like were in the same room with perhaps little work done to distract us. Hill, directs with mediocre use of the camera, never fully utilizing it. Editor Phil Norden once again probably acting on Hill's request gives us a cheap comic book gimmick ripped straight from "Sin City" and "Kick Ass".<br/><br/>I don't speak for anyone nor could I, but in my personal opinion "The Assignment" is an offensive, trans-phobic, insulting and idiotic movie. This film not only exploits the transgender community but also shines light on derogatory beliefs. If there's anything worse than awful this is it. I never did think Weaver was much of an actress but i thought Michelle could have been if she had the right roles. Girl Fighter was a good show and she did a good job. Both these actresses were painful to watch and so were all those involved in this production. Basically, a waste of my time. Nobody — not even viewers willing to settle for good, unclean B-movie fun — is done any favors by something as crude as (re)Assignment, which gracelessly mashes together hardboiled crime-melodrama cliches and an unintentionally funny “Oh no! I’m a chick now!!” gender-change narrative hook.
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369 weeks ago