Review by Jon Donnis
Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson are back in the latest big Netflix action comedy.
Kevin Hart plays Teddy, a grifter trying to make it big with various online tutorial business ideas. Failure after failure leads Teddy to try to sell his idea of non-contact boxing to local gym owner Marty (Martin Roach), Marty of course rejects the idea, as well as pointing out some fliers that Teddy made for him had no address or phone number on them for his gym.
Teddy feeling down wants to do something for his wife Lori, (Jasmine Mathews), so he decides to send her on a spa day, and book a secluded cabin for them both, so they can "make babies". Unfortunately, the printer is low on toner, and while going to the cabin to prepare things, he can't read the address, and goes to the wrong place. He goes inside and finds two men who are awaiting the arrival of someone called The Man from Toronto, they believe that Teddy is this man, a brutal assassin who is a master of the art of interrogation. Since no one gets to see the face of The Man from Toronto, they just assume Teddy is him and encourage him to interrogate a man they have as a captive.
Teddy realises he is in a bad place, with bad people, he soon realises his best chance to survive is to play along, and by pure luck he manages to extract the information the bad guys want out of the prisoner all without touching him. Before you know it, the FBI raid the place, kill the bad guys and capture Teddy. Once he explains everything to Agents Lawrence (Kate Drummond) and Davis (Ronnie Rowe) they convince him to assume the identity of The Man from Toronto due to the short time they have to complete an operation to catch exiled Venezuelan Colonel Marin (Alejandro De Hoyos) in Washington, DC before he follows through with a plan to assassinate the President of Venezuela at the new Venezuelan embassy.
Before you know it, after a few car chases and fight scenes, Teddy finds himself on a plane to Puerto Rico with the real The Man from Toronto (Woody Harrelson) who in turn kills everyone on the plane except Teddy and then crash lands.
What follows is something of a buddy film with Teddy and Toronto teaming up, with Teddy trying to stay alive and keep Toronto happy, as well as Toronto needing to use Teddy as his replacement. Of course, they end up liking each other and you have all the ingredients for a pretty decent comedy.
I was really surprised with this film, it is really well made, and just works as a comedy action thriller. There is even a lengthy fight scene in a gym, which is really well edited and filmed in a different way to the rest of the film. And I found myself rewatching the entire fight scene because I was so impressed.
The interactions between Hart and Harrelson are very believable, and both characters are completely likeable. Hart is his usual funny self throughout and Harrelson grows from the dead eyed assassin, into someone with a heart
Plenty of laughs, excellent action scenes, of which there is a good mixture. Likeable characters, as well as a small role for Kaley Cuoco as Anne, a friend of Teddy's wife Lori, who also ends up with a connection to Toronto.
The Good
Excellent fight scenes, some laugh out loud moments, and a great script. And despite the 1 hour 50-minute run time, the film never dragged and had me enthralled throughout.
The Bad
I would have liked to have seen more interaction between the Woody Harrelson and Kaley Cuoco characters, I think they could have done much more there.
Overall
I really enjoyed this film, and is one I will definitely watch again.
I score The Man from Toronto a really strong 8/10
Out now on Netflix.
Also the soundtrack is really cool in this film, and you can get it at https://amzn.to/3OSDBSI
