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The Assignment (2016)

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Ace assassin Frank Kitchen is double crossed by gangsters and falls into the hands of rogue surgeon known as The Doctor who turns him into a woman. The hitman, now a hitwoman, sets out for revenge, aided by a nurse named Johnnie who also has secrets.

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The Assignment is 1260 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 594 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Curious Caterer: Dying for Chocolate but less popular than Glitter & Doom.

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The Assignment

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Watch The Assignment with a subscription on Prime Video, rent on Fandango at Home, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Apple TV.

What to Know

The Assignment 's premise is bizarrely intriguing; unfortunately, it's also just one of many ingredients fumbled in a disappointing misfire from director Walter Hill.

Critics Reviews

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Walter Hill

Michelle Rodriguez

Frank Kitchen

Sigourney Weaver

Dr. Rachel Kay

Tony Shalhoub

Dr. Ralph Galen

Caitlin Gerard

Anthony LaPaglia

Honest John Hartunian

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• Tomboy, a Revenger's Tale
• (Re)Assignment

• Caroline Chan

• See all credits
• "A deliciously transgressive and smart classic B movie."  Todd McCarthy : The Hollywood Reporter
• "[It] gracelessly mashes together hardboiled crime-melodrama cliches and an unintentionally funny 'Oh no! I'm a chick now!!' gender-change narrative hook."  Dennis Harvey : Variety
• "The filmmaker’s touch is completely lost here, and the only danger the film winds up posing is to the time spent by those who choose to watch it."  Kevin Jagernauth : The Playlist
• "The film's dialogue is entertainingly hard-boiled, and the performances knowing without ever being arch."  Keith Uhlich : Slant
• "Walter Hill (...) has enough skill and personality going for it to make it worth checking out, even if it doesn’t quite live up (...) to its borderline sleazy premise (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"  Peter Sobczynski : rogerebert.com
• "Gender-switching hitman thriller is staggering misfire (...) a strong contender for 2016’s worst movie (…) Rating: ★ (out of 5)"  Benjamin Lee : The Guardian

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The Assignment (2016)

Directed by walter hill.

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Description by Wikipedia

The Assignment is an action crime thriller film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Denis Hamill. The film stars Michelle Rodriguez, Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia, Caitlin Gerard, and Sigourney Weaver.

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the assignment

Legendary director Walter Hill (The Warriors) gives the revenge film a modern neo-noir twist with this electrifying thriller. Hitman Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez) is given a lethal assignment, but after being double-crossed, he discovers he’s not the man he thought he was—he’s been surgically altered and now has the body of a woman. Seeking vengeance, Frank heads for a showdown with the person (Sigourney Weaver) who transformed him, a brilliant surgeon with a chilling agenda of her own.

The Assignment Trailer: Michelle Rodriguez Used to Be One Killer Dude

Sigourney Weaver stars as a deadly surgeon who turns a hitman into a hit-woman in the first trailer for The Assignment.

The Assignment

Cast & crew.

Michelle Rodriguez

Frank Kitchen

Sigourney Weaver

Dr. Rachel Jane

Tony Shalhoub

Dr. Ralph Galen

Caitlin Gerard

Anthony LaPaglia

Honest John

Violent thriller irresponsibly tackles transgender themes.

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© 2016 SBS Films

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‘the assignment’: film review | tiff 2016.

Sigourney Weaver stars as a twisted surgeon and Michelle Rodriguez as the man she turns into a woman in Walter Hill's '(Re)Assignment.'

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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A demented pulp fiction about a brilliant surgeon who creates a Frankenstein monster by performing a sex change on the scumbag assassin who killed her brother, The Assignment (previously titled (Re)Assignment ) is, by any objective standard, a disreputable slice of bloody sleaze. But there’s also no question that veteran director and co-writer Walter Hill knows exactly what he’s doing here, wading waist-deep into Frank Miller Sin City territory and using genre tropes to explore some provocatively, even outrageously transgressive propositions. For longtime fans of the filmmaker, this Canadian-made low-budget revenge yarn will be embraced as Hill’s most entertaining and, on the terms it sets for itself, accomplished film in some time. It’s an instant cult item.

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In a public climate arguably more saturated with discussions of gender than ever in the history of the world, Hill and his co-screenwriter Denis Hamill make subversive creative use of the topic in ways that are both brainy and amusingly provocative. The catalyst for all the mayhem is genius, but now defrocked plastic surgeon Dr. Rachel Kay ( Sigourney Weaver in intimidatingly imposing mode), whose revenge upon low-life hitman Frank Kitchen, who took out her brother, is to capture him and apply her expertise by turning him into a woman (Michelle Rodriguez); in a world where transgenderism is now an accepted fact of life, this is one example where it is neither voluntary nor desired.

The Bottom Line A deliciously transgressive and smart classic B movie.

Intercutting between Rachel’s interrogation by shrink Dr. Ralph Green (Tony Shalhoub ) and the hatching of the now-female Frank’s extensive revenge-taking for what’s been done to him/her physically results in a great deal of exposition. But Hill keeps it lively and interesting, on one hand by supplying the brilliant Rachel with lots of blunt and high-toned commentary about how and why she’s done what she did; on an intellectual level, she and Hannibal Lecter would be an even match.

On the other, there’s the spectacle of watching Frank come to grips — and this is meant literally — with “her” own new body. Without any self-consciousness, Rodriguez enacts a thorough physical self-inspection from top to bottom, and her former tough guy character remains infuriated by having been deprived of the equipment he used to enjoy. All the same, she eventually reconnects with a young nurse and part-time good-times girl (Caitlin Gerard) “he” had hooked up with just prior to his unwanted conversion.

A good part of the action involves the extensive revenge Frank exacts upon a local San Francisco gangster, Honest John (Anthony LaPaglia ), for an earlier betrayal; plenty of bad guys get blown away here in bloody fashion, and Frank really is remorseless. In this world, much of it set in San Francisco’s Chinatown (actually shot in Vancouver), everyone is guilty — or, to paraphrase Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven , everyone’s got it coming.

Hill, production designer Renee Read and cinematographer James Liston immediately establish and then maintain the look of a seedy urban world defined by dirty browns and blacks, as well as by dimly lit streets, a lonely diner and a seedy old hotel; this is as noir as it gets these days. On numerous occasions, sequences end with visual punctuation courtesy of graphic comics-style illustrations.

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. At the same time, however, a witty intellectual loftiness hovers over everything thanks to the erudite remarks ceaselessly pouring from the mouth of Weaver’s doctor, who likes to confound her interrogator with frequent references to Shakespeare.   

Weaver’s terrifically articulated performance neatly establishes the top side of the film’s high/low dynamic. For her part of the equation, Rodriguez, with momentary exceptions, maintains a virulent charge of fury, anger and disgust with what’s been done to him/her, something that quite plausibly drives the vengeful mission. It’s a story of two killers, one of whom operates from the brain, the other from more basic instincts, and together they’re quite a pair for one movie.

Venue: Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentation)

Production: SBS Films

Cast: Michelle Rodriguez, Tony Shalhoub , Anthony LaPaglia , Caitlin Gerard, Sigourney Weaver

Director: Walter Hill

Screenwriters: Walter Hill, Denis Hamill

Producers: Said Ben Said, Michel Merkt

Director of photography: James Liston

Production designer: Renee Read

Costume designer: Ellen Anderson

Editor: Philip Norden

Music: Giorgio Moroder , Raney Shockne

Casting: Sheila Jaffe , Candice Elzinga

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The Assignment

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• Detroit News Adam Graham "The Assignment" is an embarrassment all around, a murky, regrettable piece of gutter cinema. Next year's Razzie Awards race starts here.
• Seattle Times Soren Andersen This is perhaps the angriest movie Hill - longtime specialist in tough-guy fare such as "The Driver," "Last Man Standing," "Red Heat" and "Bullet to the Head" - has ever made.
• AV Club Ignatiy Vishnevetsky Calling it disappointing would be an understatement.
• RogerEbert.com Peter Sobczynski Has enough skill and personality going for it to make it worth checking out, even if it doesn't quite live up (or down, depending on your perspective) to its borderline sleazy premise.
• MovieFreak.com Sara Michelle Fetters Hill, working with co-writer Denis Hamill, is going through the motions as far as the main revenge storyline is concerned.
• ScreenCrush Matt Singer Should be sent back for its own experimental surgery.
• Slant Magazine Chuck Bowen Walter Hill and Michelle Rodriguez seem to share Frank's confusion over the precise difference between cosmetic and biological reality.
• TIME Magazine Stephanie Zacharek The Assignment isn't quite as nutso and passionate as it ought to be. Even the violence, gritty at times, feels a little impersonal and detached. But the film's tawdry precision is compelling by itself.
• Los Angeles Times Michael Rechtshaffen There's howlingly awful and then there's "The Assignment," a thoroughly ridiculous, numbingly slow neo-noir thriller about a low-life hit man forcibly given gender reassignment surgery by a vengeful doctor.
• New York Times Glenn Kenny The tricksy structure doesn't have much of a payoff (even though Mr. Hill constructs sequences with deft fluidity). And the role of the surgically altered assassin defeats poor Ms. Rodriguez.
• Village Voice Chris Packham Rodriguez absolutely tears it up as a stomping, cussing nuclear core of male swagger, both before and after the surgery.
• TheWrap Alonso Duralde Reprehensible, yes, but it's also dull and inept. Fans of Walter Hill should treat his latest effort like the kind of car crash from which it's best to avert one's eyes.
• Film Comment Magazine Nathan Lee The Assignment is not so nave as to presume that "moral and political considerations" are irrelevant to its effect, but once you wrap your head around the premise the effect is more or less played out.
• BuzzFeed News Alison Willmore It's too clunky to be any kind of real provocation.
• Flavorwire Jason Bailey Politics of sex and gender aside, '(re)ASSIGNMENT' is junk.
• Slant Magazine Keith Uhlich The film's dialogue is entertainingly hard-boiled, and the performances knowing without ever being arch.
• Variety Dennis Harvey Gracelessly mashes together hardboiled crime-melodrama cliches and an unintentionally funny "Oh no! I'm a chick now!!" gender-change narrative hook.
• Hollywood Reporter Todd McCarthy For longtime fans of the filmmaker, this Canadian-made low-budget revenge yarn will be embraced as Hill's most entertaining and, on the terms it sets for itself, accomplished film in some time. It's an instant cult item.
• Boston Herald James Verniere Rodriguez and Weaver are riveting. This lurid B-movie has cult following written all over it.
• SFist Rain Jokinen Hill has been mulling The Assignment's story since the 1970's, and that in itself may prove a cautionary tale: If it's taken you almost 50 years to finally get your story made into a movie, it probably wasn't that great of a story to begin with.

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The Assignment (2016)

This film provides examples of:

• Asshole Victim : Everybody who Frank murders (except for maybe Sebastian, but even he's a jerk who threw away the money that his sister provided to pay his debt) are criminals whom he notes no one will miss.
• Attempted Rape : Post sex reassignment, Frank is nearly raped by the sleazy owner of the hotel that he was put in. Frank overpowers and beats up the guy, then flees the premises.
• Attractive Bent-Gender : Post unwilling sex reassignment, Frank appears in a very attractive female form (played by Michelle Rodriguez in both cases, though the first in makeup obviously).
• Big Bad : Dr. Rachel Jane, the main villain of the film, who's a mad doctor .
• Big "NO!" : Frank yells this after seeing he's been made physically female.
• Body Horror : Being made physically female serves as this for Frank, especially at first.
• Bond Villain Stupidity : Dr. Rachel Jane, instead of killing Frank (possibly after extended surgical torture) subjects him to an involuntary sex reassignment and leaves him alive that way, with ample ability to track her down. Later, when her mooks catch him, they also didn't search him at all it seems since they miss his hidden gun which he uses to shoot them after waking up.
• Crosscast Role : Michelle Rodriguez plays Frank, a male hitman (by means of a fake beard and some prosthetics initially) who's subjected to an Easy Sex Change by a Mad Doctor who wanted revenge on him because he had killed her brother. For the rest of the film, he looks like Rodriguez normally does (obviously the reason for this).
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check : If Jane could perform an Easy Sex Change that could make you look like Michelle Rodriguez , she should have been able to make enough money to buy whatever revenge she wanted. It's possible however that marketing her techniques would expose that it had been perfected by running an underground clinic where she experimented on homeless people (she's a Mad Doctor , after all).
• Easy Sex Change : It's unclear just how long, but within very little time Jane performs a full set of sex reassignment surgeries on Frank, altering his cheeks, throat, nose and genitals. This isn't possible, willing or not, as he'd need time for recovery from each one. There's no indication that he was held very long however. Of course, since he's played by Michelle Rodriguez , he comes out with her appearance (which is also implausible).
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones : Dr. Rachel Jane is coldly indifferent to most people, and views them as simply test subjects. However, she still feels something for her brother, and sought out the hitman who killed him in revenge. That hitman in question, Frank, is also an example. He has a girlfriend he's obviously fond of, and takes care of a pit bull who'd been forced to fight. Additionally, he's got some close Latino friends.
• Evil vs. Evil : Frank is a hitman who freely admits he's bad and has killed many people. Dr. Rachel Jane, his nemesis, is a mad doctor who experimented on homeless people for medical research, and subjects him to involuntary sex reassignment for revenge when Frank kills her brother.
• Fan Disservice : Michelle Rodriguez as Frank shows full frontal nudity. However, as it's after he had been heavily bandaged and underwent extensive surgery, along with them being entirely unwilling procedures which freak him out, this is far less sexy than might be the case otherwise.
• Fanservice Extra : Near the beginning, Sebastian has a sex worker over in very revealing clothes. Frank's girlfriend Johnnie also appears briefly topless, and he interrupts one of his targets having sex with a naked Asian woman.
• Fingore : In the very last scene, it's revealed that Frank cut off Jane's fingers after shooting her (presumably so she couldn't do surgery ever again).
• Frame-Up : After shooting Jane's mooks , Frank makes it appear like her assistant killed them before being shot himself by putting the murder weapon into his hand. The police buy this, and don't believe her that he did it.
• Gender Bender Angst : Frank is very unhappy he was subjected to a forced sex reassignment, and even looks into a surgery that could at least somewhat undo this. However, he settles for vengeance against the mad doctor who did this instead as he's told it would never be the same.
• Gender Bender : Frank gets a full sex reassignment via magic plastic surgery , and the result is him then going from physically male to looking like Michelle Rodriguez (who played him in both cases).
• Get Out! : Frank yells this to one of his allies.
• Guns Akimbo : Frank wields guns in both hands multiple times during the film.
• Hitman with a Heart : Frank is shown to have a soft side. He's got some good friends, loves dogs (adopting one who'd been used for fighting) and displays genuine affection for his girlfriend.
• Hollywood Law : Dr. Rachel Jane is said to have been ruled incompetent to stand trial, so she's put into a mental institution instead, where a psychiatrist evaluates her to see if she's become competent (he decides she's not after attacking him). We see no indication she would be incompetent though, which simply means that they are able to understand the proceedings and aid in their defense. Jane is quite intelligent, so there's every indication she could do both of those things. Being ruled incompetent usually requires that a defendant be severely mentally impaired from disability, a mental illness, brain damage or senility.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard : After his unwanted sex reassignment, Frank gets back at Dr. Jane by mutilating her hands so she could never operate again .
• If It's You, It's Okay : After Frank's unwilling sex reassignment surgery, his girlfriend Johnnie has no problem continuing their relationship, suggesting this or else that she was bisexual all along. Given she is The Mole for Jane, it could also simply be Pragmatic Pansexuality , keeping Frank happy and under control.
• Interrupted Intimacy : Frank interrupts one of his targets when the guy is having sex with a woman.
• The Loins Sleep Tonight : After his involuntary surgery, Frank tries to have sex with his girlfriend (having been made physically female). However, he isn't able to feel anything, and consults a doctor who tells him sensation won't come back for around six months.
• Mad Doctor : Dr. Rachel Jane is an arrogant though highly skilled surgeon with delusions of grandeur who's been stripped of her license for illegal experiments. After that, she operates illegally in an underground clinic, performing more experiments on homeless people for what she claims is advancing medical knowledge. However, when a hitman murders her brother, she subjects him to a sex reassignment both to punish and change him (supposedly) for the better. After he kills most of her employees, plus shooting her, in revenge, she's found out by the police and sent to a mental institution.
• Magic Plastic Surgery : Frank ( Michelle Rodriguez heavily made up to look male) becomes a female version of himself physically (Rodriguez as herself) after undergoing involuntary sex reassignment surgeries. This would in reality require long recovery time between each procedure and have visible scarring (the mad doctor who did it was just that good ).
• Male Frontal Nudity : Early on Frank shows this stepping out of the shower, perhaps to emphasize his appearance before he's given an unwilling sex reassignment.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman : Frank feels up his new breasts after realizing what's happened, while looking at himself in the mirror. He seems more repelled than anything however.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate : Dr. Rachel Jane was a surgeon whose unethical and illegal experiments meant she lost her license. This didn't stop her though-she just went underground with them. However, this is contrasted with normal psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Gales who's assessing her and considers what she did completely wrong and notes she betrayed her oath as a physician.
• The Needs of the Many : Dr. Rachel Jane says her experiments on homeless people were for this, to advance medical knowledge which would benefit millions. Their lives, in comparison, meant nothing to her.
• Pet the Dog : Literally when Frank kills a Russian dog fighter and adopts the pooch, due to having a soft spot for dogs. And again when he learns Johnnie's partly responsible for what happened to him, but is too in love with her to execute her, so he sends her off to Reno for safety and possibly a new life.
• Professional Killer : Frank Kitchen is a hitman, and the plot is sparked by him murdering Dr. Rachel Jane's brother over an unpaid debt he owed to criminals.
• Revenge : Dr. Rachel Jane wants revenge on Frank, the hitman who murdered her brother. So she gets a crime lord to kidnap him, then performs a sex reassignment (partly to "help" him in her view). He's horrified, then seeks revenge on her in turn, along with employees of the gangster who helped kidnap him for Jane, then them and also her mooks .
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge : After learning what was done to him, Frank goes after the criminal employees of gangster "Honest John" who helped Dr. Jane to do this, killing them off before he gets John himself, then Jane and her mooks after this. Jane survives, but is left stuck in a mental institution with no fingers, courtesy of Frank cutting them off.
• Tomboyish Name : Johnnie, Frank's girlfriend. It's unclear if this is short for anything. Aside from this however she isn't a tomboy at all in her appearance or actions.
• Understanding Boyfriend : Johnnie takes it to extreme heights, as she's completely unperturbed by Frank's new appearance, and has no questions or comments beyond noting how different he looks when she first sees him post sex reassignment. She stays with him afterward, completely accepting, without hesitation. It also seems she's entirely aware that he's a hitman, and doesn't mind at all. Then it's revealed that she was the one to set him up for the surgery in the first place at the behest of Dr. Jane, whom she'd been working for the whole time getting her the drugs for her experiments, and stayed around him to keep an eye on him.
• Understatement : Frank's girlfriend notes that he looks different after his involuntary sex reassignment, but makes no further comment. This is putting it very mildly. It's a wonder she recognized him. Before he had a beard and larger nose, as the most obvious examples. It makes sense when it's revealed she knew about this all along, as Jane's spy, and would have expected these changes.
• Villain Protagonist : Frank admits right in the opening voiceover monologue that he's a bad guy, and has probably deserved even more than what was done to him after he killed so many people. However, he isn't completely bad, and is seeking revenge on people that are on his level or even worse than him.
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Product Description

Legendary director Walter Hill (The Warriors) gives the revenge film a modern neo-noir twist with this electrifying thriller. Hitman Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez) is given a lethal assignment, but after being double-crossed, he discovers he's not the man he thought he was-he's been surgically altered and now has the body of a woman. Seeking vengeance, Frank heads for a showdown with the person (Sigourney Weaver) who transformed him, a brilliant surgeon with a chilling agenda of her own.

Product details

• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 0.8 ounces
• Director ‏ : ‎ Walter Hill
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 38 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ June 6, 2017
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Michelle Rodriguez, Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia, Caitlin Gerard
• Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ Spanish
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Lionsgate
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B06ZZ5WGCR
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
• #6,844 in Action & Adventure DVDs

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• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 68% 14% 11% 3% 3% 14%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 68% 14% 11% 3% 3% 11%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 68% 14% 11% 3% 3% 3%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 68% 14% 11% 3% 3% 3%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

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The Assignment (I) (2016)

Full cast & crew.

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