Much like this week’s Cleaner, Old Guy is yet another film helmed by a once high-profile action director; this time, Simon West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Expendables 2) steps in to see if he’s still got some of his old spark so he can breathe some life into this character study of aging hitman Danny Dolinski (Christoph Waltz) who is forced by his bosses to mentor a younger killer (Cooper Hoffman), who will inevitably replace him and possibly take Danny out in the process.
When we meet him, Danny has finally recovered from hand surgery to deal with arthritis in his shooting hand, and he feels he’s ready to go out into the field again. But the overlords of his criminal organization are going younger and less experienced than their field agents, and they want him to observe a new hire who seems to have a habit of killing way too many innocent bystanders when carrying out hits. They want him to give the younger man a few pointers, but Danny knows damn well that once the bugs in this kid’s style have been worked out, they’ll put Danny out to pasture.
The way the two work together is actually fairly complementary. Danny is an expert in getting close to the target without being detected; Hoffman’s Wihlborg is an excellent shot. Every time Danny takes a shot, ripples of pain shoot up his arm. It turns out his bosses are in the midst of a war with another syndicate, and the pair are tasked with taking out the highest-ranking leaders of their opposition. But there are double crosses and shifting allegiances along the way, and it turns out the only people these two can trust are each other and Danny’s longtime friend Anata (Lucy Liu). Together, they deduce that the only way to live through this dilemma is to take out everyone on both sides of this gang war.
Waltz seems especially energetic and game for just about anything in this bizarrely structured buddy action comedy, while Hoffman plays his character with plenty of quirks to go around having to do with his daily eating and living habits. He might be leaning toward the psychopathic, but he respects Danny’s tutelage to a degree and actually ends up better at his job as a result. The plot is a little wonky most of the time, and the actual objectives of both sides can get somewhat confusing, but it probably doesn’t matter anyway. Most of the thug-ish characters here are forgettable and interchangeable, and Greg Johnson’s screenplay leaves a lot to be desired, but thanks to these lead performers, there’s something worth observing in their interactions, especially as the adversarial nature of their relationship subtly shift into something more like father and son.
I’m still having a blast watching Hoffman come into his own and test his limits as an actor, while Waltz is the veteran who still knows how to surprise us sometimes. It’s a mixed bag, but the actors make it worth a look.
The film is now playing in theaters.
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