Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4427 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-10-26
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 127 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
If Sylvester Stallone plays the world's number one assassin in this thriller, that must make Antonio Banderas, well, number two. The two are competing to hit the same target for a $20-million payoff and their challenge takes them from explosion to explosion on a cat-and-mouse chase from Seattle to Mexico. Julianne Moore plays the cagey cat fancier and computer hacker who possesses a stolen computer disc that makes her a prime target for bad guys, and Robert Rath (Stallone)is only too happy to come to her defense. Director Richard Donner handles action sequences with adequate flair and has a good time blowing things up. Banderas has fun with the nonsensical plot, and Moore is enjoyable in one of her big-budget mainstream roles. --Jeff Shannon

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Interactive Menus
Production Notes
Scene Access
Language in Dolby Digital 5.1: English
Subtitles: English, Arabic, English for the hearing impaired

Synopsis
An aging professional assassin who's looking to get out of the business becomes prey for his psychotic, up-and-coming protege, mirroring the hit-man's own ascension fifteen years earlier.

Customer Reviews

Stallone versus Banderas: Battle of the Hunks
I actually enjoyed this film. I figured that I wouldn't because some people told me this was a really bad film. But I am such a huge Stallone fan that I needed to see the film for myself. Again, Stallone plays the sad, lonely character. And someone else (Banderas) plays the goofy character. That is the one thing about Stallone's movies that I don't get. Why does he always play the sad, lonely character and very rarely does he play the goofy character.

The film has some great action, and great direction from Richard Donner. Everyone and everything in the film makes it great. The whole story with the two rival assassins trying to kill each other and steal each other's jobs I think was really fun and interesting to watch. Stallone and Banderas have good chemistry on the screen, and the intensity is what makes the film great.

The only thing I didn't like was the quick ending.

Before The Matrix...
Assassins is the Wachowsky Brothers film everyone forgets about, although perhaps because here the duo share screenplay credit with the variable Brian Helgeland with Richard Donner taking directorial duties. Originally intended as a vehicle for Sean Connery and Tom Cruise as the tired topdog and the precocious pretender in each others sights but settling for Stallone and Banderas instead, it's a pretty good thriller with some good setpieces and an interesting take on its antiheroes as people who have being lying for so long they've almost forgotten who they really are. Sadly, the film is seriously let down by Antonio Banderas' wildly over-enthusiastic performance (and that's putting it politely): for the number two hitman, he goes out of his way to be as conspicuous as possible at every opportunity. But it's still more than a notch above the average action movie.

hilarious
the first time i watched this i confess i was disappointed. i didn't want to see antonio banderas play a bad guy, but i've since watched it several times. sylvester stallone plays an assassin who wants to get out of the game, whereas banderas wants to reach the top of the game. stallone's character makes himself out to be better and we get a bit of very hypocritical moralising, which i don't care for. i prefer to watch banderas who is clearly having great fun playing the bad guy for once, and especially enjoying doing some great stunts. he's really cool and pretty sexy in this film, and far more interesting and charismatic than stallone. so if you're a fan of stallone and julianne moore you should may be rent this, but if you're a banderas fan like me then it's worth a buy, since he gets better every time you watch