What’s It About

The story follows Joe Flood (Bautista), a top hitman who is diagnosed with a terminal illness and he decides to take matters into his own hands – by taking a hit out on himself. But when the very hitmen he hired also target his ex-girlfriend (Boutella), he must fend off an army of assassin colleagues and win back the love of his life before it’s too late.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

“The Killer’s Game” sizzles with adrenaline-fueled action but falls short of revolutionizing the genre. This blood-soaked Perry-directed spectacular deftly interweaves grisly combat, tender romance, and eye-popping stunts. It vividly depicts the dangerous life of a killer who has so masterfully created a life of anonymity and survival. Though it may evoke John Wick, “The Killer’s Game” carves out its own niche-one that is temporary. It reaches high and then morphs into something else: a mindless, fun diversion. Audiences will need to dial down any expectations; anyone expecting greatness in cinema will go away disappointed. That’s what I knew after the trailer set me free from the initial hype. This is the definition of a summer blockbuster that requires no thinking whatsoever. I would say it was the intention of the director from the beginning. It’s the perfect antidote to boredom, a time-killer par excellence, but barely necessary viewing. The hulking Dave Bautista plays Joe Flood as a grizzled killer. He usually gets his assignments from Zvi, avoiding the Uber-like system used by Marianne. On one of these jobs, Joe threatens another hitman who interferes with a ballet performance by Maize. Distracted by an excruciating headache, Joe accidentally pockets Maize’s dropped phone. A chance encounter blossoms into romance, even as Joe struggles to cope with a dire diagnosis: three months to live. He starts up an insurance policy, hiring his own assassin, naming Maize beneficiary of his estate. The first act is the best part of the film as it centers on Joe and Maize’s whirlwind courtship. But it’s all downhill from there. The storyline, for which the trailer had already prepared viewers, falls spectacularly apart. Some early montage sequences, with their kaleidoscopic frames showing the development of the characters, are truly fascinating. This turns out to be a smoke screen to distract from the fact that the core of the film is empty. While the protagonists are commanding attention, the antagonists are paper-thin. Marianna, for which Klementieff does her best, simply doesn’t come across as frightening. Her slender figure makes any physical confrontation with the giant Joe, played by Bautista, utterly comical. She’s made threats over the phone, which land with all the weight of a feather. Her minions don’t do much better, coming across more cartoonish than credible. Terry Crews manages to go from wooden to winning and provides some seriously needed comic relief. In fact, humor is arguably the one saving grace to this film in terms of eliciting some honest-to-goodness laughter amidst all the carnage. Kingsley shines as the sardonic father figure, filling any scene he is in with some much-needed wit and warmth. The less heavy-hitting, globe-trotting assassins, respectively played by Crews’ Lovedahl, get little screen time and have, therefore, minimal depth. Lee Hoon’s Goyang patriarch does the best with measured, impactful dialogue. As it goes on, “The Killer’s Game” relies much more on gunplay violence, eschewing those more elaborate hand-to-hand sequences. It settles for a middle-ground tone somewhere between “Bullet Train” and “John Wick”. The editing style of the first act moves at a fresh pace, though. The usually wildly veering action scenes drop beautifully choreographed to patently staged at times, in such a jarring manner that one’s suspension of disbelief is summarily broken. Chiefly, one badly choreographed sword fight comes across as the low point. However, most of the action scenes, even while unrealistic, are entertaining. Gore hounds will enjoy the frequent blood and buckets thereof, even if it feels gratuitous rather than integral most of the time. The plot’s thinner than tissue paper, the dialogue frequently makes one cringe, and the villains are enormously underdeveloped. It’s a conceit that really requires a solid, authoritative mastermind in order to pull it off. Without Bautista and his co-leads charismatic performances, “The Killer’s Game” would fall apart easily. Instead, the film manages to entertain despite its flaws-a mindless yet immensely enjoyable romp through a world of high-stakes assassinations and unexpected romance.

OUR RATING – A SOLID 6

MEDIA

• Genre – Action
• Street date
• Digital – October 4, 2024
• 4K/Blu-Ray/DVD – November 19, 2024
• Video – 1080p
• Screen size – 2.00:1
• Sound – English Dolby Atmos, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio, English Descriptive Audio
• Subtitles – English SDH

Extras

• Meet Joe Flood
• The Conductor
• World of Assassins
• Killed It!
• Theatrical Trailer