Butler's Cinema Scene

Ron Perlman

“ASHER” My rating: C+ (Opens Dec. 7 at the AMC Town Center)

96 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“Asher” is a by-the-numbers aging hit man movie somewhat enlivened by its weirdly charismatic star — Ron Perlman — and by  being a crime drama in which virtually all the characters are Jewish.

White-haired Asher (Perlman) kills people.  He’s got it down to routine.  He stands in the hallway outside his victim’s door, lights up a cigarette and opens an umbrella. When the smoke alarm goes off and the overhead sprinklers start spraying, he waits until the alarmed target throws open the door to see what’s up and then…BLAM!!!

Or, more accurately, ZIIIIP!!!, since Asher uses a silencer.

Jay Zaretsky’s screenplay is unclear about just who Asher works for.

He gets his assignments at a Brooklyn tailor shop where the yarmulke-wearing owner passes out info and cash in plain manilla envelopes. The big boss is Avi (Richard Dreyfuss), who runs a whole crew of assassins, but whether they’re all in the employ of the Israeli government or some organized crime enterprise is left fuzzy.

Anyway, Asher is beginning to feel his age. The plum assignments are now going to the killers Asher taught.

Even more troubling, some of Asher’s colleagues — and their families — are being mysteriously slaughtered.

Fake Janssen

A loner for most of his life, Asher finds himself drawn to a woman he met while staking out a target’s apartment.

Sophie (Famke Janssen) teaches ballet to school kids and spends countless hours dealing with her cranky mom (Jacqueline Bisset) who is rapidly sinking into dementia.

She and Asher hit it off (he claims to be a “contractor,” which is kind of truthful).  But when Asher survives a couple of assassinations attempts he fears that Sophie will become a target, too.

The action is well staged and director Michael Caton-Jones (“Rob Roy,” “This Boy’s Life,” “Memphis Belle”) provides a sort of autumnal solemnity to the proceedings.

Perlman is very watchable as our graying protagonist.

But there isn’t anything here we haven’t seen is a score of other movies.

| Robert W. Butler