The Man from Toronto
A bungling Kevin Hart is mistaken for a deadly hitman in a live-action cartoon shambles.
Trading places: Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson
Fans of the beautiful city of Toronto will not be the only ones disappointed by Kevin Hart’s latest action-comedy. The title refers to a Canadian hitman played by Woody Harrelson who, presumably, comes from Toronto. However, the movie is set all over the place: in Utah, Yorktown (in New York), Onancock (in Virginia), Washington DC and Puerto Rico, with fleeting visits to Miami, Moscow and Tokyo. It is the nature of films featuring assassins on assignments to cram in as many exotic locales as possible, and the venues – Killing Eve style – are announced in huge capital letters writ large. In fact, everything about The Man from Toronto is writ large, from the hitman’s first appearance in a doorway, with his face screened by sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, to the over-extended fight sequences that just go on and on with numbing doggedness.
Kevin Hart plays one of life’s neurologically divergent losers who, in spite of his unremitting ineptitude and ignorance, has managed to secure a decent home and a beautiful wife (Jasmine Mathews). He has also run up big debts, although his social media athletic training site, he is proud to say, has racked up three comments in three years. Teddy Jackson is the sort of character you will only find in a Kevin Hart comedy, and the eponymous hitman who crosses his path is pure comic-book fodder. When, in a last-ditch attempt, Teddy endeavours to give his wife the birthday of her dreams, he turns up at the wrong cabin in the woods. He had rented a love shack for the night, but when he arrives with champagne and flowers, he quickly realises that these tools are more than ineffectual for the task he is expected to carry out: the torture of a bloodied captive in the cabin’s basement. But, in keeping with the film’s unswerving tone of improbability, Teddy gets the man to talk, thus robbing the real interrogator of his lucrative gig. Seconds later the house is blown apart by the FBI and the shaggy dog yarn starts to unravel. So it transpires that The Man from Toronto is on his final assignment and is determined to follow through with the mission to pocket his $2m…
Woody Harrelson has some fun in the title role as a man more comfortable with a durian than a dame, although he’s no match for Jason Statham, the original choice for the part. That would have been interesting: Hart and Statham. Sadly, though, Statham fell out with the producers over the tone of the film, having originally signed up for something edgier. It was a wise exit, as the resultant shambles is a woolly, by-the-numbers affair that barely rallies a chuckle. As an example of the film’s comic level, how about this for a zinger? Hart: “What is my part in the mission?” Harrelson: “Two parts, actually. First part is: shut up – or I’ll kill you. Second part is – don’t forget the first part.” Still, it’s marginally less painful than the director’s previous foray into the action-comedy genre, Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Kevin Hart, Woody Harrelson, Kaley Cuoco, Jasmine Mathews, Lela Loren, Pierson Fodé, Jencarlos Canela, Ellen Barkin, Jencarlos Canela, Ronnie Rowe, Alejandro De Hoyos, Kate Drummond, Martin Roach.
Dir Patrick Hughes, Pro Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch, Screenplay Robbie Fox and Chris Bremner, Ph Rob Hardy, Pro Des Naomi Shohan, Ed Craig Alpert, Music Ramin Djawadi, Costumes Virginia Johnson, Sound Jay Wilkinson and Michael Payne.
Columbia Pictures/Bron Creative/Escape Artists-Netflix.
110 mins. USA. 2022. UK and US Rel: 24 June 2022. Cert. 12.
