The Man from Toronto (2022) – Netflix Movie Review

This movie’s basically a PSA about the dangers
of low toner.
Hey everybody, welcome to Mainely Movies.
Today I’m gonna be talking about Netflix’s
2022 action comedy: The Man from Toronto.
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All of my reviews include a breakdown of the
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that extra content.
The Man from Toronto stars Kevin Hart, Woody
Harrelson, and Jasmine Mathews and was directed
by Patrick Hughes.
It tells the story of ordinary guy, Teddy
Jackson, played by Kevin Hart, who’s mistaken
for the assassin known as The Man from Toronto
and must continue to play the role with the
help of the real Man from Toronto.
Action comedy can be a very tough genre to
get right.
Action and comedy do go together well, but
it requires balance and often a little bit
of restraint, especially on the comedy side
of things.
I’ve actually had my eye on this film for
a number of years now.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.ish name is what initially
caught my attention, but back then, this

film
was set to star Kevin Hart and Jason Statham
and that seemed like a perfect comedic pairing
for this type of a story.
But Statham dropped out over creative differences
and then this film fell victim to the perpetual
delay cycle of 2020 in 2021, eventually losing
its theatrical release altogether.
Netflix picking it up probably wasn’t the
best sign, but these types of action comedy
sometimes really work for me, so I was still
willing to give it a shot.
From a plot perspective, The Man from Toronto
doesn’t offer anything we haven’t already
seen before in similar films.
Everything is predicated on a case of mistaken
identity where Kevin Hart’s character, Teddy,
is mistaken for an assassin known as the Man
from Toronto.
It probably doesn’t take a professional
screenwriter to guess that the scenario is
going to lead to a mismatched buddy comedy
situation.
It’s all overly familiar and goofy, borderline
dumb in its set-up, but the premise had potential.
Pairing an ordinary guy with a tough globetrotting
assassin could’ve been really funny and
could’ve done some interesting things in
terms of the story, but it really doesn’t
do either.
The story hits the basic beats you expect,
but somehow manages to be quite boring and
doesn’t feel like it really goes anywhere.
The inconsistent pacing and weak story certainly
don’t do this film any favors, but sometimes
action comedies can get by and be decent on
their action and comedy alone.
The Man from Toronto is not one of those films.
The action here feels like the bare minimum.
There’s one fight sequence towards the end
of the movie that’s decently entertaining,
but it heavily uses an editing style that
is sort of cool at first but gets irritating
after a while and isn’t used anywhere else
in the movie, so it feels out a place.
Apart from that okay sequence at the end,
the action is just occasionally there, but
isn’t anything memorable.
Unless, of course, we’re talking memorable
in a bad way because there’s some really
terrible green screen and CGI, especially
during one particular sequence.
It’s startlingly bad to the point where
I almost wonder if they forgot that they still
had to do the effects for that sequence and
then just threw together some early PS3 graphics
for it last minute.
So, the action’s a nonstarter, but what
about the comedy?
It’s subpar.
Obviously, comedy is one of the most objective
things in film, so I’m sure there’s somebody
out there who’ll think this is really funny
but for the most part, the jokes just didn’t
land for me.
There are a few lines here and there that
are kind of funny, but not enough to salvage
the rest of it.
Hart plays his character exactly how you expect
him to (and exactly like many other characters
of his) and although he’s a bit much at
times, I will say that his reactions to various
things are the best moments of comedy in this
film.
Woody Harrelson, on the other hand, just feels
very miscast here.
He basically plays a less funny, more restrained
version of Tallahassee from Zombieland and
it doesn’t really work.
Perhaps the biggest blow to the comedy though
(and probably to the film as a whole) is the
lack of chemistry between Hart and Harrelson.
There are some okay moments, but for a buddy
comedy, you need two people whose comedic
styles really mesh and that just isn’t the
case here.
So, the comedy comes across feeling forced
and largely unfunny, which is such a shame
because, again, the premise had potential
and this could’ve been a really funny and
entertaining movie with the right casting
and a slightly better script.
I still would’ve really liked to have seen
Jason Statham playing the Man from Toronto,
as originally planned, and I think the chemistry
would’ve worked a lot better but having
seen the film, I understand his creative differences
and can’t blame him for dropping out.
Alright, let’s talk about the pros and cons.
Really the only pro here was the premise.
I’ll admit, it’s not the most original
idea for an action comedy.
There have been plenty of silly buddy comedies
and mistaken identity films over the years,
so aspects of it are certainly very familiar,
but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have the
potential to be fun.
Kevin Hart is really good at playing this
type of silly, out of his element character,
and if he had been paired with somebody who
fit his comedic style a little bit better,
I think this could’ve been a pretty decent
film.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and
the story just doesn’t really do anything
with its premise, so it’s a bizarrely boring
movie that doesn’t go anywhere.
On the con side, the biggest issue is definitely
the humor.
Like I mentioned before, I realize that comedy
is subjective.
So, I also realize that there are probably
people out there who think this film is hysterical.
And if you’re one of those people, I’m
really happy for you, but I personally found
this to be a largely unfunny film.
Again, the solid premise had the potential
for some really good humor.
And if the chemistry between Hart and Harrelson
had worked and if the script and jokes were
a little bit better, then I think this would’ve
been really entertaining.
But, very few of the jokes end up landing
and it just becomes a tediously unfunny affair.
Con number two is the pacing.
This ties into the script issues that I mentioned
before, but this movie just does not know
what to do with its premise.
It gets off to a slow start and has these
sporadic moments of excitement, but then just
drags in between those moments.
It’s such an inconsistently paced film,
so it makes it really hard to stay engaged
with it.
Even if you find the story interesting or
like the characters, the movie genuinely makes
it a challenge to stick through everything.
There are a lot of kind of dull scenes that
are sort of unnecessarily thrown in throughout
the film and this is one of those movies that
feels like it’s reached a natural ending
about three or four times before it actually
ends.
The third con is the CGI.
Compared to the other issues, this is a fairly
minor problem since it’s not noticeably
bad throughout the entirety of the film, but
the sequences where it’s a problem are really
really bad.
There’s a fight sequence that occurs on
a plane near the halfway point of the film
and it features some laughable green screen
and CGI.
It almost looks like they did an effects pre-vis
mock-up to show what they were envisioning
for the scene, but then just never went back
in to replace it with the finalized CGI.
It’s pretty ridiculous looking and is very
reminiscent of mid-2000s video game graphics.
Before I give you my rating and recommendations,
I want to remind you that if you’re interested
in buying The Man from Toronto or any of the
films I mentioned today, I do have affiliate
links for all of them in the description below.
I get a small commission from anything you
buy using one of my links, so I’d really appreciate
if you’d use them if you’re in the market
for any of these movies.
I’m gonna give The Man from Toronto 2 out
of 5 paws.
This one started out closer to 2.5 paws for
me, but just went downhill over the course
of the runtime.
It has a decent, if very familiar premise,
but just doesn’t do anything interesting
with it.
Instead, it’s a poorly-paced, unfunny film
with a very surprising lack of chemistry between
its two leads.
I would recommend The Man from Toronto to
somebody looking for a movie they can just
throw on in the background.
Fans of action comedies are probably gonna
be fairly disappointed with this one, but
if you like some of Netflix’s other similar
output, you might be one of those people who
finds this one decent.
If you liked The Man from Toronto, I would
recommend Central Intelligence.
This is another movie where Kevin Hart plays
an ordinary guy who gets wrapped up in a ridiculous
situation.
In this film, he’s paired with Dwayne Johnson
and they have much better chemistry together.
If you liked Woody Harrelson here, then you
might want to check out Zombieland.
The actual character he plays is fairly different,
but from a personality standpoint and a performance
perspective, there are some definite similarities
between the Man from Toronto and Tallahassee,
even apart from the T cities.
And if you liked this kind of frenetic action
comedy with a mismatched pair of leads, you
should check out The Hitman‘s Bodyguard.
That’s another film directed by Patrick
Hughes and is similarly overzealous with its
comedy, but Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson
have decent comedic chemistry with each other.
Alright, a couple questions for you guys.
Number one: Have you seen The Man from Toronto?
If so, what’d you think of it?
And number two: What’s your favorite movie
about mistaken identity?
Be sure to leave your answers in the comments
below so we can get a discussion going.
Alright, so if you got some enjoyment, insight,
or information out of this review, I’d appreciate
it if you’d hit that like button.
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Until next time, this has been Alyssa with
Mainely Movies: The way life should be.

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