#REVIEW: “THE MAN FROM TORONTO”

By Mr. Will Wong

After finding some success with franchises like THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD and THE EXPENDABLES, Austrlian Director Patrick Hughes is back with long-awaited THE MAN FROM TORONTO, which we’ve been invested-in, particularly. FOR OBVIOUS REASONS.

The Buddy Action-Comedy centers on Teddy (Kevin Hart) who is just down on his luck, getting fired from his job for his lack of attention to detail. His reputation at work have made his first name synonymous with blunders, i.e. “He Teddied that up bad!”. While staying at an Airbnb, he gets confused as “The Man from Toronto”, one of the world’s deadliest assassins – that being Randy (Woody Harrelson). In a do-or-die manner, Teddy finds himself teaming with Randy and fronting as The Man from Toronto, not knowing quite what he’s up against, while forced to conceal this lethal secret from his wife Ruth (Jasmine Matthews).

THE MAN FROM TORONTO at its core is about a man truly finding himself when his life is put on the line, but explores tropes we’ve seen before in the Buddy Action genre. If anything, we wished it had just a bit more heart, rather than leaning-on chaotic thrills and often humour at Teddy’s expense, even despite Hart‘s best efforts to keep us engaged.  Under-utilized also are its talented female stars Kaley Cuoco as Randy‘s wife Maggie and Matthews. Of course Ruth is in the dark about Teddy‘s secret life – she’s hardly in it! And other than the reference to Randy being from Toronto, there really isn’t much tying anything here to the City, which is another missed opportunity.

We get the decision to move this from its original theatical release, but the good thing is that you can enjoy this at home on Netflix at your leisure this Summer beginning June 24, 2022.