WFG RATING: B

The Avenue presents a 23ten/Dark Castle Entertainment/Highland Film Group production in association with LB Entertainment, Pfaff & Pfaff, and Studio 507. Directed by Simon West. Produced by Martin Brennan, Norman Gologhtly, Petr Jakl, and Jib Polhemus, and Hal Sadoff. Written by Greg Johnson. Cinematography by Martin Ahlgren. Edited by Chris Gill, Andrew MacRitchie, and Todd E Miller.

Stars Christoph Waltz, Cooper Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Ryan McPartland, Anna Akinjirin, Demond Edwards, Tibu Forest, Desmond Eastwood, and Kate Katzman. 

It’s Christoph Waltz having fun and dealing with age catching up to him in this action-comedy from the director of Con Air. 

Danny Dolinski was the best hitman in the city. Working for a secret organization for decades, he was the number one guy. However, time has slowly begun to catch up with him. Having arthritis in his shooting hand, Dolinski thinks it’s not his time yet. However, the organization feels it is time for the old guard to retire but not without training a new guy.

Danny has been hired to take a new hitman named Wihlbold under his wing. Wingbold is the exact opposite of Danny. He doesn’t believe in hard partying, he lives a healthy lifestyle, but has a flaw of tending to be trigger happy. And it’s that flaw that could potentially jeopardize jobs on the field. When an incident reveals why Danny was chosen to bring Wihlbold into the fold, a series of events may have to revive the old guy one more time.

This is a pretty good action comedy from Simon West that clearly involves a generation gap into the world of being an assassin. It is the baby boomer against Generation Z and thanks to the performances of both Christoph Waltz and Cooper Hoffman, the film works well as a buddy action film.

Waltz is great as Danny, the titular “old guy”, a longtime veteran hitman who loves to do his job by day and party at night. He thrives on being both the best at his job and the life of the party. The only one who tends to keep him on the level is Lucy Liu’s Anata, who is connected to the organization as well but longs for a better life and even goes as far as trying to be in a relationship with someone else. While it’s obvious that Danny may have some feelings for her. 

As for Hoffman, he tends to be quite a complement to Waltz’s baby boomer era hitman. He considers himself genderfluid, doesn’t believe in alcohol, and even tries to convince Danny to live a healthy lifestyle. However, where Danny is the careful articulate type when it comes to accomplishing the missions, Wihlbold tends to be a bit trigger happy and he’s had a record of accidentally getting innocent people involved. This prompts Danny to help him overcome that attitude and teach him about control. 

Old Guy is a pretty fun generation gap buddy action film in the world of assassination. Christoph Waltz and Cooper Hoffman show such funny chemistry and should there ever be a sequel, then I would be all in to see them again. 

The film will be in select theaters and on Digital on February 21.