A professional assassin Joe Flood (played by Dave Bautista) finds out that he’s been diagnosed with a terminal brain disease right when he begins to settle down with a dancer (Sofia Boutella) that he met immediately following a hit. The doctor tells him that he’ll lose his eyesight, start trembling and become completely dependent on others so Joe decides that he doesn’t want Maize to see him like that. But he knows she won’t get the life insurance policy if he commits suicide so the former Army sergeant arranges for an assassin broker to take him out. Just as the clock starts ticking, Joe receives word that the lab put the wrong bar code on the wrong sample and, therefore, he’s healthy. But the broker business works in mysterious ways and he can’t cancel the hit he placed on himself. Now, to get back to Maize, Joe has to find a way to eliminate the competition so the competition doesn’t eliminate him unnecessarily.
I had a boss once tell me “You can’t shine a turd.” Well that boss never met director J.J. Perry because THE KILLER’S GAME was shined. The script is an unimaginative mess with beyond-tired comedic lines throughout yet Perry distracts the audience with clever and fun visual queues as transitions as well as syncing the action with the score’s tempo changes.
Bautista carries the movie well. While full of convenient circumstances and dialogue, you do find yourself rooting for Joe and Maize to get together. In addition, Pom Klementieff does what she can with her broker character while the rest of the supporting cast is believable as either assassins or mentors.
I left the theater with one prevailing thought: Why make this? It’s like an alien race watched a handful of American action movies and then tried to make one of their own, resulting in THE KILLER’S GAME.
Is it bad? No, not really. I’m even sure there’s somebody out there who will see this and consider it one of their favorite movies of all-time. But, to the rest of society, it’s an average action movie at best. Other than a handful of interesting ways to kill people, there’s nothing new here. Matter of fact, Perry’s directing is the only reason its worth watching.
JKG SCORE: 5.5
Untitled Film Project 