Hollywood tough chick Michelle Rodriguez appears in the altogether in her new movie The Assignment:
If I'm understanding the plot of this pic correctly, a hitman is double crossed and is subsequently surgically transformed into a woman by some rogue surgeon played by Sigorney Weaver. The now hitwoman goes on a revenge spree after either those who double crossed her or the surgeon or both.
Details are a bit sketchy on the movie, and like the Kristen Stewart pics in the previous post, mostly all the attention being paid to this movie is over Rodriguez being naked and also the promise of some lesbian action since she's supposed to be a guy underneath, and so on. Don't know if they'll take the opportunity to have some fun with role reversals here, but it would be a great missed opportunity for some insightful humor.
If you're casting a movie and are looking for a recognizable female lead who could pass, attitude-wise, for a man, you can't go wrong with MRod. She's been playing the hard-ass girl in movies forever it seems. From her early appearance in Girlfight to SWAT to her appearances in the various Resident Evil installments, the 38 year old Rodriguez has the physical presence to play a convincing fighter/soldier type and enough swagger to pass as a biological man underneath Michelle's own very attractive feminine outward appearance.
And assuming there's any sort of girl-on-girl action in the movie, we've already been treated to Michelle's sapphic leanings as she was one of rent-a-lesbian Cara Delevingne's earliest conquests in the movie industry. I'm not thinking we'll be seeing this movie at the Academy Awards next season, most likely a straight-to-video affair, but I've always appreciated MRod's bad ass character portrayals, so I hope the film does well for her.
Update:
Home sick for the weekend and doing the corresponding non-standard sleep/wake thing, I rented this movie during the wee hours when I couldn't sleep. What did I think of it?
Glad you asked.
MRod plays a hit man named Frank Kitchen (a fake name as she tells us in the voice over). Made up as a man with a scraggly beard and making her voice more husky than normal, Rodriguez makes the portrayal as close as any woman could manage without massive CGI. There is a full-frontal nude scene early on where they show Frank in all his manliness . . . it's pretty convincing . . . and unsettling.
Anyway, Kitchen is double-crossed and ends up on the operating table of a slightly insane rogue doctor played with perfect God Complex insanity by Sigourney Weaver. Weaver's doctor decides to both punish Kitchen for one of his assassinations and experiment with one of her pet theories. She surgically transforms Kitchen into a woman, delivering the massive psychic shock possible by stripping away his "macho man" persona and lifestyle while simultaneously giving him the opportunity to redeem himself as a woman. The doctor believes that "gender = identity" so without the awful manliness that supports his killer asthetic, he will be able to simply walk away from that lifestyle and live a calm, happy life as a woman.
More than a little far fetched, but the doctor is crazy after all. On a more practical note, in terms of being far fetched, is the film's notion that one can recover from such massive and total gender reassignment surgery in a matter of days without scarring and bruising and debilitating pain and so on. But once we get the basic set-up, the movie then follows a fairly predictable revenge drama format with only one or two mild surprises thrown in.
There's some cleverness to how the movie is laid out with flashback timelines and storytelling, voice over by Rodriguez, and some Sin City style graphic scene cut ins and outs. It's a mash-up of styles, and I don't mean that as a negative. The movie looks good -- nice cinematography, sets and action pieces. Good casting -- along with Rodriguez and Weaver, there's Anthony Lapaglia and Tony Shaloub. They put some effort into this movie, and it shows.
Rodriguez does a good job with the role. Obviously, she can handle the action scenes, but she also conveys the emotion of her situation believably. And writer/director Walter Hill puts in some small bits of nuance -- Kitchen lamenting that the female hormones are softening/weakening his body so that he can't fight like he once could. And spending the night with a nurse he met earlier in the film as a man, he doesn't know if he can please her adequately now. Kitchen finally sort of comes to terms with his situation, at one point using his appearance to his advantage to escape a dire predicament.
Not a bad movie, I doubt you'll hear much about it unless the transgender community gets up in arms over it for some reason. I wouldn't have spent money on it if I wasn't home sick, and I can't recommend you do either. It'll make it's way onto basic cable at some point. Check it out then.
Home sick for the weekend and doing the corresponding non-standard sleep/wake thing, I rented this movie during the wee hours when I couldn't sleep. What did I think of it?
Glad you asked.
MRod plays a hit man named Frank Kitchen (a fake name as she tells us in the voice over). Made up as a man with a scraggly beard and making her voice more husky than normal, Rodriguez makes the portrayal as close as any woman could manage without massive CGI. There is a full-frontal nude scene early on where they show Frank in all his manliness . . . it's pretty convincing . . . and unsettling.
Anyway, Kitchen is double-crossed and ends up on the operating table of a slightly insane rogue doctor played with perfect God Complex insanity by Sigourney Weaver. Weaver's doctor decides to both punish Kitchen for one of his assassinations and experiment with one of her pet theories. She surgically transforms Kitchen into a woman, delivering the massive psychic shock possible by stripping away his "macho man" persona and lifestyle while simultaneously giving him the opportunity to redeem himself as a woman. The doctor believes that "gender = identity" so without the awful manliness that supports his killer asthetic, he will be able to simply walk away from that lifestyle and live a calm, happy life as a woman.
More than a little far fetched, but the doctor is crazy after all. On a more practical note, in terms of being far fetched, is the film's notion that one can recover from such massive and total gender reassignment surgery in a matter of days without scarring and bruising and debilitating pain and so on. But once we get the basic set-up, the movie then follows a fairly predictable revenge drama format with only one or two mild surprises thrown in.
There's some cleverness to how the movie is laid out with flashback timelines and storytelling, voice over by Rodriguez, and some Sin City style graphic scene cut ins and outs. It's a mash-up of styles, and I don't mean that as a negative. The movie looks good -- nice cinematography, sets and action pieces. Good casting -- along with Rodriguez and Weaver, there's Anthony Lapaglia and Tony Shaloub. They put some effort into this movie, and it shows.
Rodriguez does a good job with the role. Obviously, she can handle the action scenes, but she also conveys the emotion of her situation believably. And writer/director Walter Hill puts in some small bits of nuance -- Kitchen lamenting that the female hormones are softening/weakening his body so that he can't fight like he once could. And spending the night with a nurse he met earlier in the film as a man, he doesn't know if he can please her adequately now. Kitchen finally sort of comes to terms with his situation, at one point using his appearance to his advantage to escape a dire predicament.
Not a bad movie, I doubt you'll hear much about it unless the transgender community gets up in arms over it for some reason. I wouldn't have spent money on it if I wasn't home sick, and I can't recommend you do either. It'll make it's way onto basic cable at some point. Check it out then.
Did you find this discussion helpful? Check out my other not exactly a movie reviews for my thoughts on the flicks and the occasional gallery of hotness that accompanies them:
No comments:
Post a Comment