The Man from Toronto is a new movie release that has been acquired by the Netflix platform instead of showing it in cinemas.
Perhaps this came as a real salvage for the movie, which will only last a few days at the box office in light of strong competition from such strong films as "Top Gun" and "Elvis".
"The Man from Toronto" is a comedy and "action" (thriller) starring Woody Harrelson, Kevin Hart and Kaley Cuoco, with a simple and largely traditional plot, but it quickly made it to the top-watch lists in some countries around the world.
Traditional Comedy Wins Sometimes
The film begins with Teddy Jackson (Kevin Hart) trying to achieve quick success with YouTube videos to promote exercise, but his inability to plan or focus on the steps of his projects turns all his attempts into comic failures, standing on the edge of everything;
He's losing his job, and his wife is about to leave him, so he decides to take her to a country cottage to restore the romance of their relationship.
But because he did not change the printer's ink, the paper with the reservation details came faded, to get lost and instead of taking his hut and setting it up before she came, he takes the place of a hitman codenamed "The Man from Toronto".
That is the plot of the film, which no one would be unfair to consider naive;
For example, today there is no one who prints the details of any hotel reservation, but deals via e-mail, mobile phones and electronic applications, meaning that the basis of the plot itself is very weak, but the filmmakers did not care about this detail, indicating that the viewer will not stand in front of it unless he does not laugh , and betting on the comedy they present.
The film's story is based on the essential paradox between its two protagonists: Teddy Jackson, who is clumsy in all his thoughts and actions, and Randy or "The Man from Toronto", a hitman, who has no feelings for anything or anyone but his precious car.
The events based on this paradox are what make comedy, but the idea of the paradox itself and building a movie on it remains very traditional, as we find it in cinema, starting with the silent short films of Laurel and Hardy or Charlie Chaplin.
Therefore, calling this movie “traditional” is not an exaggeration, as it basically depends on scenes for those who want to watch a simple movie, and are not looking for any artistic renewal or innovative humor, so it is an ideal work for the electronic platforms that viewers are looking for at the end of the week on Fun and funny work that erases the weight of a long work week and nothing more.
The man from Toronto and a mixture of films
The Man From Toronto reminds viewers of many other films but in a fragmentary way, with its violence and the character of the killer Randy, it bears a striking resemblance to The Hitman's Bodyguard.
However, the latter contained a lot of violent and bloody scenes and action mixed with comedy, which is what is missing in "The Man from Toronto" whose action scenes are largely lackluster, dominated by comedy, and almost without any gory on screen, in an attempt to make it a work The family gets a "PG 13" rating, which makes it available for more views.
The indifference of the filmmakers is even more apparent in the contrast between the drawing of the characters and the way they appear on the screen;
For example, Laurie, Teddy's wife, is a supposedly smart, hard worker who accepts her husband's multiple failures and tries to motivate him to move forward with his career.
This same wife accepted her husband's illogical excuses for his disappearance, simply sending him a handsome secret agent to entertain her in shopping around town in his stead, which certainly casts much doubt as to how intelligent this wife is.
Likewise with "Randy/The Man from Toronto" who appeared more like an American cowboy with a knife, which made the word "Canadian" in his name something completely incomprehensible, and Woody Harrelson played the character in an indifferent comic way because it is basically poorly written.
It was the same with Kevin Hart, who used his familiar comedic abilities to patch the holes in the character, even the poorly written comedies.
As for the role of Anne, the wife's friend, presented by Kaley Cuoco, it is not understood in the context of the film;
She only appeared in 3 scenes, to humanize the personality of the killer as a man who opens his heart to love for the first time, but that does not justify that these scenes do not show the nature of her relationship with Teddy and his wife, or why she agreed to be associated with this grim killer?
The movie "The Man from Toronto" depends mainly on receiving the viewer or what he is looking for, so if the goal is an entertaining movie that the recipient watches during his daily tasks, or on the evening of a busy working day, it will be ideal for him, as it does not require focus or close follow-up, especially if he is loving For the kind of comedy that Kevin Hart presents.
But a viewer looking for a meticulous work will be disappointed with this movie, which has a rating of 53% on Rotten Tomatoes by audience and 25% from critics.