A movie like The Killer’s Game seems too be like someone took elements of movies like John Woo’s The Killer, the John Wick movies, and Boss Level and decided to make your standard one-hour and 45-minute action comedy.
It’s one of those movies that seems to exist in a world where hired hitmen get paid millions and all have unique comic book style characteristics. In reality, most professional killers, even the ones who work for the mob, are lucky to get five figures. Most just make a few thousand here or there and usually do something so stupid that they lead a trail to the authorities to arrest them.
Still, movies where the fantasies have worked like in the ones I mentioned earlier, were at least fun to watch and had characters we liked as well as style. Directed by J.J. Perry, who made the vampire action comedy Day Shift which I liked, but here the story is dull because we’ve seen it all before. Dave Bautista plays Joe Flood, a veteran assassin, who carries out a hit in Budapest where he kills a crime lord or something. It doesn’t matter.
Joe has scruples where he only kills bad people. He also lives in Budapest which I think wouldn’t be too cautious. But like I said, most hitmen aren’t that intelligent or careful. He’s made enough money that when he meets Maize Arnaud (Sofia Boutella), a dancer who catches his eye at the theater and helps her from being trampled through the mayhem, he thinks about changing things up. The only problem is the headaches he’s been having may be related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which will probably result in his death, he decides to take out a hit on himself. He won’t have to suffer and Maize can collect his life insurance.
However, his handler, Zvi Rabinowitz (Ben Kingsley) refuses to do the order so he turns to a rival, Marianna Antoinette (Pom Klementieff), to set it up. However, right when the hit is supposed to go into effect, Joe receives word there was a mix-up at the lab. He’s fine and his headaches are related to something else, i.e. his neck just needs a spinal adjustment. Marianna refuses to remove the hit and even doubles it because Joe killed her father years before.
So, like in John Wick and Boss Level, the order goes out to numerous assassins, one which look like a K-Pop group, two British lesbians, two Scottish brothers who speak English but there are subtitles, and Creighton Lovedahl (Terry Crews) who initially refuses but accepts when the pay is increased.
Basically, the movie just jumps from Joe having to deal with one group only to kill them and go on to another as he runs around Budapest trying to stay alive and track down Maize. Perry is a former stuntman/actor but he’s also a military veteran. He should know that hand grenades don’t let off the fireballs they do. But this movie isn’t based in reality. It could have been a fun movie if it had some originality to it. Part of what made Boss Level so good was that Frank Grillo knew people don’t like him, as he’s played both good guys and bad guys, so they’d enjoy seeing him being killed over and over as he’s stuck in a time wrap.
Bautista and Boutella have no chemistry and seem to only be together because the plot requires them to. Then, there’s the climax that in true John Woo form takes place in a church. Because the movie takes a light-hearted approach despite its graphic violence and gore, we know that Joe is in no real danger. Movies like this can be fun to watch when done correctly.
Yet, this one feels like a game that cheats you on how it’s played.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 