The Man from Toronto – Netflix’s Latest Dump and Sweep Dud

The Man from Toronto is the latest dump and sweep away release from Netflix. The most fascinating aspect of this movie is quite literally its journey from the big screen to the small screen. The Man from Toronto stars Kevin Hart as his usual awkward, screaming self, and a calm, cool, and collected killing(?) machine in Woody Harrelson. The reason for the question mark is because viewers rarely actually see many of this assassin’s kills thanks to them being off screen most of the time. Yay for PGisms. This film started out as a Sony Pictures property. Filmed in fall 2020, it was set originally for a theatrical release in a pre-COVID timeline; the film had jumped around a couple of different release dates before landing in August 2022, with a promised theatrical release. Then Netflix came knocking, or rather, Sony needed some guaranteed cash without dishing out anything on marketing? Who knows.

Ultimately, in April of 2022, just a couple of months ago, Sony announced that Netflix had officially acquired distribution rights for The Man from Toronto. Fast forward to just this week, and a film that had once been on this reviewer’s radar as a new and original theatrical action-comedy flick starring Woody Harrelson and Kevin Hart had completely disappeared until it recently resurfaced upon viewing it prior to release. As someone who grew up near Toronto, anything with the name Toronto in it became an obvious draw.  

To have a film of this size, a $75 million dollar budgeted Hart-Harrelson action-comedy, and to dump it on Netflix with zero promotion whatsoever is exactly what is so mind boggling about the Netflix system. As recently as two weeks ago Netflix had a film that they pushed, promoted, and wanted to be seen in Hustle. So the dump and sweep away release style for The Man from Toronto is not solely because it is a Netflix property, but it is also because the film is just not good. 

This action-comedy is not new by any means. It opens with an introduction to the completely different lives lived out by awkward down on his luck Teddy Jackson (Hart), and the badass and terrifying Man from Toronto (Harrelson). Their paths end up crossing as Jackson awkwardly stumbles into scenarios where people think he is the Man from Toronto, and mayhem and shenanigans ensue. Most viewers can probably figure out where all of this is headed? Unfortunately it does not get much better as the film progresses with very mediocre humor and very tame kills from our countless assassins throughout the film. Keeping the carnage off screen is certainly a choice. This choice was truly a missed opportunity and with the way audiences have enjoyed ultra violent comedies in recent years, it’s unclear why the filmmakers went this route. This certainly would have added to the film in a positive way. It needed that jolt and shock factor to make up for what had been an absolute snooze fest otherwise. 

One of the concepts within the film’s world is that these Woody Harrelson type assassins are all referred to by city names, whether it be The Man from Miami (Pierson Fodé who is easily the best thing about this movie) or the Man from “insert city name here.” The concept feels very straight out of the book of Patrick Hughes’ last works, The Hitman’s Bodyguard and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. Please God don’t let there be a sequel. Hughes has unfortunately fallen into a pretty grim spot here with this film, and it’s unfortunately most certainly worse than his last two movies. 

The Man from Toronto features very little Toronto at all, and it is a film that hinges on one’s personal tolerance or enjoyment potential of Kevin Hart and his usual shtick. While not a hater of the comedian, the material that he and Harrelson had to work with here just felt tired, boring, and it downright dragged. It is disappointing to say that this one is a dud, and it is surely destined to lay waste in the field of countless Netflix dump and sweeps.

*still courtesy of Netflix*

If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook.

Brennan Dubé

**ignore the above Instagram link**