4 Star

4K UHD Neo-Noir.

StudioCanal brings us the 1989 neo-noir film that hits the streets running. Skilfully directed by Walter Hill (The Driver, Hard Times) who brings out in the best of his leading actors. It’s dark, gritty and deadly. Johnny Handsome, a great film for when the nights start drawing in.

His name is John Sedley (Mickey Rourke, Eureka, Jade), but every one calls him ‘Johnny Handsome’. They are not being complimentary, John has a disfigured face due to his parents misdemeanours. But Johnny has a brilliant mind which is not used for good. His accomplices listen to his plan for robbing a numismatist, he has sorted the transport, the distraction, and the security. Now the couple Sunny Boyd (Ellen Barkin, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Very Good Girls) and her partner Rafe Garrett (Lance Henriksen, The Visitor, The Witches of Oz) are ready for the heist.

It’s all action, Sunny goes in as the distraction while Rafe, Johnny and his best friend and mentor Mikey Chalmette (Scott Wilson, The Ninth Configuration, The Walking Dead (TV Series)) follow up as the smash and grab starts. During the confusion, the owner manages to press the alarm, and that is when the shooting starts.

Rafe and Sunny are animals, and they don’t care where the bullets fly, and Mickey is gunned down as they make their getaway, leaving Johnny to take the fall. It is New Orleans law enforcement officer, A.Z. Drones (Morgan Freeman, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Lucky Number Slevin) who has always been on Johnny’s case, and now he has his second strike, he tells him he’ll rot in prison.

In prison, he works the cotton fields of the ‘Farm’. But he does meet plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Resher (Forest Whitaker, Southpaw, Arrival) who offers to change Johnny’s life, by giving him a new face and a new life.

Can Johnny turn himself around, especially when he meets Donna McCarty (Elizabeth McGovern, Anne Rice’s Talamasca: The Secret Order, The Handmaid’s Tale), or will Drones incessant criticism get to him?