There are certain projects that leave you scratching your head wondering not only who the hell approved such a questionable concept, but why it needed to exist in the first place. What makes it even more incredulous is that while The Assignment had existed in some shape or form since 1978, it was released in 2016 when the premise was always going to cause offense.
It sounds so insane that it doesn’t seem like something that would actually be made in good faith, but the story really does find Michelle Rodriguez playing a bearded hitman named Frank Kitchen, who ends up being double-crossed and undergoing gender reassignment surgery against his will, waking up following the operation as a woman before vowing to track down and take out Sigourney Weaver’s rogue doctor, who performed the procedure.
As you can imagine, transgender groups and all aspects of the LGBTQIA+ community were understandably furious, with writer and director Walter Hill mounting a weak defense that amounted to him basically saying “I’m not transphobic,” even though the tasteless nature of the entire film and its central hook ensured that nobody bought into it for a second.
For what it’s worth, The Assignment was at least panned by critics amidst calls for a mass boycott, not that it mattered when a minor theatrical run yielded less than $400,000 at the box office anyway. Controversy tends to be a big draw on streaming, though, which might explain why the contentious and tone-deaf shooter has suddenly wound up as the unlucky 13th most-watched feature on Netflix’s worldwide watch-list, per FlixPatrol.
Published: Jun 25, 2023 02:27 am