“True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked.” - Erich Segal
Some people are content within the confines of what and where they’ve been most notable or successful. Dwayne Johnson for example, seems perfectly fine playing the heavily muscled hero whose wardrobe across every movie ranges from plain t-shirt to shirts with pockets all with muted colors usually along with a pair of khaki pants. (Seriously, check out his clothing for most of his movies. They all look as if they could be worn by just one of his characters.) And then there’s those only content with expanding the expectations of when, where and how they can be successful. Dave Bautista could easily, and likely successfully, rest on his laurels just the same. He could be the muscled hero or the big bad henchman and do just fine for his career. But as he has stated many times he wants to be something more than the big muscle guy that does action movies.
In the last few years alone he has starred in Glass Onion and Dune: Parts One and Two. In 2017 he was in Blade Runner 2049. While his latest role might be seen as regression, definitely possessing familiar character traits he’s played before, it does provide a glimpse of Bautista like we’ve never seen before as a man in love. He also showcases his talents as a man diagnosed with terminal news and realizing the best and worst of him are colliding and there’s nothing he can do about it. Unfortunately as a display of his true talents, this movie is not quite it. I use the word glimpse intentionally as it feels like nothing more than a brief look through a window into a room we haven’t fully been invited into just yet. I’m sure we’ll get that invite sooner rather than later but for the time being it would seem we only have these quick looks at what kind of genuine acting talent Dave Bautista just might actually be.
While a fun movie, The Killer’s Game is not the example he’s hoping to set for his future in acting. For the most part it’s a return to tough guy doing tough guy things. He does admittedly demonstrate an aptitude for comedic timing which is great to watch him dive into a funnier, more vulnerable kind of character. The two movies that came to mind as I watched were John Wick and The Hitman’s Bodyguard. If you combine elements of both you get the general idea of what you’re in for with The Killer’s Game.
Although I would argue those two movies are much better than this particular action comedy. That’s not to say it’s awful, it simply doesn’t offer much beyond its basic promise to deliver funny quips and an inordinate amount of gratuitous violence. It certainly keeps that promise but rarely ever tries to, or shows any interest in, expanding beyond its borders of a simplistic actioner. It does little to separate itself from the countless other movies that function almost exactly like this one does. I don’t know that it has any kind of identity beyond its immediate watch.
We find Joe Flood in a particularly precarious place in his life. For two decades he’s been the best at what he does: murder for hire. Recently feeling unfulfilled he begins to question the next chapter of his life. And in a time when he believed it might be too late or impossible for someone in his line of business to find love, Maize comes into his life and changes everything. Suddenly color has come back into his world and she is the source of everything good for him. So as with any pessimist, the ugliness of reality was never far enough.
After suffering from constant headaches and dizziness, he gets a diagnosis that breaks everything. Terminal with no hopes for a cure, he turns to his fellow contract killers to take him out before his disease does. He doesn’t want to be a mess, stranded to a bed with no motor functions and an impending doomsday that will only kill him after it’s left him in a vegetative state. He intends to go out on his own terms. He will soon find out however, only after he’s put a contract out on his own head, that ultimate finish line he’s staring down may not exactly be as imminent as his doctors originally diagnosed. Begin ensuing chaos as every hitman in Europe and beyond is notified of the rather large price tag on Joe’s head.
The violence is abundant and the blood steadily flows. Each scene is more gratuitous than the last. While each scene alone is usually a good bit of fun, pieced together it all feels like nothing more than one scene following the next with little to no connective tissue. He creates a situation only to realize it was a mistake. Now he must survive that decision. It is scene after scene of people trying to kill Joe as he must now survive in the face of a misdiagnosis. It’s delightfully savage and manages to make even the most brutal moments funny, but as stated before, it never attempts to go beyond the basic premise of hitmen trying to kill the lone hitman.
It isn’t required to expand upon those ideas, the simple approach is fine, but that means it will likely be nothing more than an afterthought at most in a month’s time. I would argue it’s a slightly elevated direct-to-Netflix kind of action flick. It’s a fun ninety-five minutes that has little identity of its own. Instead of fully embracing the story and its characters, I found myself simply comparing it to other movies it reminded me of as its loose plot played out, predictably so.
Rated R For: strong bloody violence throughout, language, some sexual material, brief drug use and nudity
Runtime: 104 minutes
After Credits Scene: No
Genre: Action, Comedy, Thriller
Starring: Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Pom Klementieff, Ben Kingsley
Directed By: J.J. Perry
Out of 10
Story: 6.5/ Acting: 7/ Directing: 7.5/ Visuals: 7.5
OVERALL: 7/10
Buy to Own: Yes.
Check out the trailer below:
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