The Assignment (2016)

The somber tone and low-end production values may not be exactly in tune with young neo-noir enthusiasts, but more seasoned fans of the genre and the filmmaker will recognize and embrace Hill’s use of noir to play with and comment on topical issues in a deliciously subversive way, political correctness be damned.

(Re)Assignment is ultimately canny in genre-play and unique in its time, factors that don’t necessarily make it great, but, beyond old-man-auteurism apologia, still hold somewhat of a flame in the modern age.

This is a film which doesn’t take itself very seriously, and it will work best with an audience which takes the same approach.

Rodriguez’s transformation is hackneyed and ham-fisted, Hill’s action lacks excitement, unnecessary comic-book panel swipes add “character” – there’s nothing noteworthy about this hunt for retribution.

Cheesy without being self-aware, hobbled by rampant transphobia that the screenplay’s too dumb to address, this inane burst of campy stupidity can’t get beyond the sheer absurdity of its very existence.