If you're gonna make a romantic comedy, it never hurts to also make it a blazing action flick that totally kicks ass all over the screen from start to finish. Kinda covers more of the bases that way.
MR. RIGHT (2015) does just that, pretty much scoring a home run in the bargain. Another good thing about it is that the rom-com elements are so quirky and, well, bent that they're just as delightful and engaging as the bang-bang chop-chop stuff.
With her effortlessly winsome performance, Anna Kendrick totally redeems herself from being part of the TWILIGHT series as Martha McKay, a nice but nutty chick who just got big-time jilted by her boyfriend and is now undergoing an emotional crisis that has made her behavior even more erratic than usual.
Her relatively sane roommate Sophie (Katie Nehra) has her hands full trying to help, but it isn't until Martha cute-meets the charmingly weird Francis Munch (Sam Rockwell, THE GREEN MILE, GENTLEMEN BRONCOS, GALAXY QUEST) that she is able to get happy again. Really, really happy.
So happy, in fact, that it comes as quite a shock when she discovers that Francis is one of the most fearsome and deadly hitman-slash-agent-slash-mercenaries to ever go off the rails due to minor brain damage and go rogue while being hunted down by government and underworld killers alike.
This unorthodox (to say the least) romance is a consistent delight throughout MR. RIGHT as it goes from tentative (Martha isn't quite sure how she feels when Francis casually kills people right in front of her, then doesn't understand why this upsets her) to wildly devoted, as when Martha is kidnapped by the bad guys and the lovesick Francis goes on a one-man commando raid to get her back.
It helps that former sociopath Francis has developed feelings due to his previous brain damage and now only kills the people who try to hire him as a hitman! His ease during combat is displayed by a loose fighting style that includes lots of dancing and jocular dialogue, which makes him even more fearsome even to former comrade-in-arms Hopper (Tim Roth, PULP FICTION, RESERVOIR DOGS), who is now one of Francis' morally ambiguous pursuers.
Much of the action also involves an organized crime family, one of whom (Michael Eklund, HUNT TO KILL) has tried to hire Francis to kill his brother so that he can take over as daddy's favorite. This plan naturally goes awry, leading to the aforementioned kidnapping of Martha and lots of cool shooting, fighting, and general hilarity when Francis lays siege to their mansion.
Performances are uniformly good, chiefly from the appealing Kendrick and Rockwell at his tongue-in-cheek best. Direction by Paco Cabezas (NEON FLESH, RAGE) is tight and capable, while the screenplay by Max Landis, who also wrote the amazing CHRONICLE, pays off like a slot machine stuck on "jackpot."
The Blu-ray from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment is in 2.40:1 anamorphic Widescreen with DTS-HD master 5.1 audio. Subtitles are in English, Spanish, and French. The sole extra is a brief behind-the-scenes featurette.
MR. RIGHT is the kind of feelgood flick that actually earns that designation just by being so doggone much fun, and by managing to kick ass and be utterly charming at the same time, which is no small feat. Kinda makes me wish more rom-coms would toss a little DIE HARD into the mix.
Buy it at Amazon.com:
Blu-ray
DVD
Website: http://uni.pictures/MrRight
Trailer: http://uni.pictures/MrRightTrailer
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrRightMovie
Hashtag: #MrRight
Street date: June 7, 2016
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