“Don’t hate the player. Hate the game.”
When it comes to The Killer’s Game, there’s a lot to hate and just not enough to love. I happen to like Dave Bautista. He has the physical skills to play incredibly intimidating roles, and he actually has a good bit of comedic timing. The Guardians Of The Galaxy films gave him the perfect place to put all of that on display. He’s an entertaining part of an ensemble cast, and he more than pulls his weight in a crowd. He’s been showing up in some very important films of late, but up until this point none of these roles required him to step out of the comfortable settings where he can pretty much be him and it works on multiple levels. So we already had a pretty good idea where Dave Bautista’s strengths were to be found. It had to happen sooner or later. It’s obvious the wrestler-turned-actor has been having a good time in this actor’s game, and it was only a matter of time before he might want to see just how far his chops could take him. Could he take on the weight of being a leading man? He chose a pretty safe film, anchored in those things we already knew he could do, with an expanded role that put him at the top of the call sheet for the first time in his career. The evidence has been presented, and the defense has rested its case. The jury is going to be the audience of The Killer’s Game, and I think it’s safe to say the verdict is in. You might call it a hung jury, but that was because some of decided to take the easy way out and end the misery there. I stuck with it. No suicidal thoughts going through this juror. But I find the defendant Dave Bautista guilty on all counts. Taking on a leading man role is absolutely criminal, and if you have the patience to read on, I’m going to give you my reasons. Just understand this guilt is beyond and reasonable … forget that. This verdict is beyond a shadow of a doubt. Dave Bautista has been found condemned to going back to making the kinds of films he is good at. Call it community service.
Joe Flood (Bautista) is a hitman with a conscience. He’s the best hitter in Europe, but he works for an agency with some ethics. They only take contracts on bad people, many of them killers and human traffickers. He’s got a code along the lines of Dexter. He works for Zvi Rabinowitz, played by Sir Ben Kingsley. You read that correctly. Gandhi is now coordinating assassinations. Flood is becoming a little disillusioned with his job and has been thinking about leaving the game. We are constantly reminded that with great power … not that one. We’re reminded just as much that you either walk away or go out on your back. So he’s thinking about putting together a retirement plan. That’s when he meets Maize (pronounced Mayzee). She’s played by Sofia Boutella. She’s a dancer at an opera-like performance in Budapest where he has to take out a bad guy. In the ensuing panic, Maize ends up trampled a bit, and Flood picks her up and gets her some medical treatment. It’s been a long time since he’s had this kind of a woman in his life, and the two take to each other quite nicely. In case you don’t get the point, we’re treated to a montage that moves back and forth between her dancing gigs and his killing-somebody gigs.
The problems start when Flood starts getting bad headaches. He goes to his doctor, and after a series of tests he’s given about three months to live. His body is going to break down, and the picture painted by the doctor reveals a slow but horrible deterioration before he dies. He doesn’t want Maize to see that happen to him, so he breaks up with her and gets his buddy and boss Zvi to liquidate his stuff and make it look like a life insurance payout going to Maize once he’s gone. He also decides to move up his check-out date. When Zvi won’t help him, he goes to the competition, played by Pom Klementieff. She’s happy to take the job. He offers her the standard $2 million and sets the contract for that night at midnight. She already hates him because Flood killed her father who was breaking too many of the hitman rules. They’re trying to bring a John Wick sensibility to the whole thing. More on that later. So she brings him team after team of the best killers in Europe. Meanwhile, and you should have seen this coming a mile away, just as the clock is about to hit midnight, Flood’s doctor makes an urgent call. Tests results got switched, and all Flood has are strained eyes. Marianna won’t let him cancel the contract, and after he takes out a few of her flamboyant killers, she decides to offer “Double Supreme” which means $4 million. She’s going to put up the other half so she can get Flood dead. Apparently he’s pissed off a lot of folks in the biz, and they all want a piece of this action.
Again we’re following a John Wick path here, but without the dog. The film is populated by crazy killer teams, and we’re supposed to be entertained by these eccentric characters while Bautista gets back to what he does best. Tons of stunts and buckets of blood, or should I say terabytes of blood? All of the blood is CGI, making this look too much like a comic book … a rather bad comic book.
Of course, Maize ends up targeted when the only really competent hitman is put on the case. Terry Crews stars as Love Doll. No tricks or gimmicks here; he’s a straight shooter ,if you’ll pardon the pun. Unfortunately, Terry Crews doesn’t get to shine in the more sane character here. The boss lady wants him to teach her cousin the ropes. Cuz is one of those white guys who thinks he’s street and OG. Problem is he can’t spell OG, and he’s basically an anchor for Love Doll.
By the time it’s all over we’ve had our fill of the bloody-lite action. True love prevails, and instead of a funeral he gets a wedding after a rather lengthy confession scene when the priest refuses to marry them until he confesses his sins. One of the actually funny moments in the film. Most of the humor truly falls flat. Bautista certainly has the presence of a leading man, but he lacks the physical skills. He can’t emote his way out of a paper bag, and when he talks it’s this monotoned mumble that requires subtitles to even understand the man. When it’s just him and Maize, the film falls apart … hard.
The score doesn’t help. It’s mostly bad versions of good songs or just bad songs. The music placement doesn’t appear to have been selected with any of the actual movie in mind. Someone in the music clearance department just checked off the cheapest stuff they could find in the catalog. The film did get a short box office run, but it did very poorly. It was best left for a direct-to-streaming or home video film. Less expectations and maybe a chance to just be what it really is. I can’t say this was the worst film I’ve ever seen. I did see Event Horizon, so that takes care of that. After spending a good part of the week watching real classics out on 4K, this one just never did sit well with me. I just have one question for Director JJ Perry. I assume you were there for the actual shooting of the movie. “Have you had your eyes checked?”
