Review: The Killer’s Game
Dave Bautista battles a rogue’s gallery of colorful assassins in the over-the-top new action movie The Killer’s Game, which came out last weekend in theaters.
Bautista plays Joe Flood, one of the, if not the, greatest assassin in the world. Falling for a dancer, Maizie (Sofia Boutella), Joe wants out of the “killer’s game,” but shortly after he decides to retire and spend his life with Maizie, he receives a deadly prognosis from his doctor, who tells him that he has possibly only a few months to live. Determined to go out fighting instead of slowly becoming a vegetable, Joe puts a hit out on himself but is then informed that there was a mix-up and he’s not dying after all. If Joe wants to live, he now has to fight all the insane hitmen who have answered the call to take him out. The plot doesn’t do anything that original, but it is an entertaining setup that gets many excellent action stars and actors together, all of whom seem to be having a blast. There is a somewhat jarring tonal shift shortly into the film, as the beginning is a little over the top with the violence but slightly grounded, but as soon as Joe goes to see hit contractor Antoinette (Pom Klementieff) to arrange his hit, the movie ramps up to absurd, comic book levels, with title cards for each assassin as they are introduced. The action goes into a cartoonish, physics-defying level like Bautista stopping a motorcycle by kicking it as it comes at him or hurling people across rooms. It’s just a bit odd that the movie doesn’t start at this level and then ramp up instead of playing it fairly straight for the first act. If you were a fan of something like 2022’s Bullet Train, The Killer’s Game is operating at a similar level.
Dave Bautista is excellent as always and does a great job of dropping humorous one-liners and getting into increasingly ridiculous fights, and actually giving some dramatic heft to the love story and when he believes he’s going to die. He’s one of the greatest wrestlers turned actors and is now just a terrific actor. His physical presence is used to great effect in the various action sequences. If you’re an action movie fan, the line-up of rival assassins will surely bring a smile to your face, with the likes of Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Daniel Bernhardt, and Terry Crews showing up and taking on Bautista. There’s a sequence that is easily the highlight of the movie where Bautista has to fight several of them in succession inside an old castle, and it’s full of cool moves and funny, ridiculous kills. Director J.J. Perry, who previously directed Day Shift for Netflix, is one of those guys like David Leitch, Chad Stahelski, or Sam Hargrave who came from the world of stunts before directing, so he knows how to do cool, fun action sequences with most of it being practical. One minor nitpick is that there is a copious amount of incredibly fake-looking blood throughout the movie, but that’s a minor issue that doesn’t detract from the fights. From Zaror being a salsa-dancing martial arts killer to Adkins being a drunken Scottish hooligan, everyone feels like they have tons of fun going as ridiculous and crazy as possible, which makes the movie tons of fun to watch. Ben Kingsley also seems to be having fun as Zvi, Joe Flood’s oldest friend and the one who usually arranges his various contracts. The only person who doesn’t have much to do is Sofia Boutella, who doesn’t get into the action despite what we’ve seen from her in the past. She falls into the stereotypical wife/girlfriend role and even gets kidnapped in the movie’s latter half.
The Killer’s Game is a fun, ridiculous action movie with a cavalcade of awesome action stars and a great central performance from Dave Bautista. If you enjoyed movies like Bullet Train previously, this is definitely worth checking out, either in theaters or on VOD/streaming.
