Assassins - Movie Review

Assassins takes us into the post-Cold War era of the arms race where there are too many weapons floating around and more than enough mercenaries and private militias willing to acquire them and use them for their own personal, which usually also means “financial” gains. The only person that seems to want out of the business is the best militia-artist of them all – Robert Rath (Sylvester Stallone; Rocky, Copland)


Robert Rath is tired of the killing trade and is looking for a way out; of course, in a business where secrecy is not just something upheld; it is something as common as the sky being blue, and Rath is involved in a business from which no one can just walk away.

Rath’s employers then hire Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas; Mambo Kings, Original Sin) – a student of the assassination creed and a personal fan of Robert Rath. He is assigned a dream job – eliminate the top killer and become number one in the business.

Hindering everyone’s plans is a computer hacker known only as Electra (Julian Moore; Boogie Nights, Hannibal). She is supposed to be Rath’s last assignment, and the setup for Miguel Bain to kill both her and Rath. However, Rath is able to stay one step ahead of Bain reluctantly relying on Electra who is all too willing to return the reluctance, but Rath has an idea on how both of them can disappear without a trace if they can continue evading the crosshairs of Miguel Bain.

There is a lot of talent involved with this movie both in front and behind the camera. The movie was directed by Richard Donner of Superman and Lethal Weapon notoriety from a story pitched by the Wachowski brothers – of course; now, one brother and one sister (Bound, The Matrix trilogy), and a fun script penned by the then-two-brothers and Brian Helgeland (Payback, Man on Fire, 976-Evil).

The emotions of lost identity and hopes for escape are played well by Stallone and Moore as each one has ghosts in their closet that they know they will have to face, especially Stallone’s character whose ghost is a constant reminder of fate, where as Electra is his reminder of faith.

Antonio Banderas steals the show. At this point he was still breaking into the Hollywood game but had already made an exciting impact in Mambo Kings. In Assassins he tears loose as the anxious, wild-eyed assassin and doesn’t care who gets caught in the frenzy, and he looks like he enjoyed every moment of it.

Assassins is a well told, well paced action film with some scenes reminding you that there are human beings that just want to live a normal life because they don’t like what their real normality is, while there are others that get a kick out of living by causing misery to others; not to say that they don’t respect what others have accomplished, they are just tired of waiting for their time in the spotlight to come.