A self-described action-comedy woefully short on both action and comedy, The Killer’s Game wastes an incredibly deep bench of talent. That includes but is not limited to Dave Bautista in the cliched role of a “dying” hitman with a moral code, Sofia Boutella as the underwritten love of said hitman’s life, and martial artists-turned-action-performers (Daniel Bernhardt, Scott Adkins, and Marko Zaror). Subtract a tonally dissonant, inert script and limp, lacklustre direction from J.J. Perry (Day Shift), and the sub-mediocre result won’t be anywhere near the top — or even middle — of anyone’s CV or career retrospective.
Opening with what should be a tone- and action-setting scene, The Killer’s Game takes Bautista’s Joe Flood through the usual hitman paces at a centuries-old Budapest opera house where Boutella’s character, Maize Arnaud, incidentally happens to be performing in a modern ballet. Targeting a felonious Russian oligarch, Vasily Petrov (Dmitrij Kalacsov), Flood effortlessly dispatches Petrov’s bodyguards before ending Petrov’s life and making good his escape, using panic-stricken opera-goers for cover.
Not much for inconspicuous hits, Flood saves Maize from being trampled amid the chaos. It’s what passes for a meet-cute. In less than short order, the lonely, lonesome Flood finds love with Maize, considers permanent retirement from the hitman community, and looks forward to a quiet, idyllic existence. A hitman can dream, of course, but given the trail of bodies he’s left behind, it’s not necessarily one he deserves or even earned regardless of the underlying merits of those hits.
That lasts as long as it takes for Flood’s personal physician, Dr. Kagen (Raffaello Degruttola), to inform Flood that he’s suffering from an incurable neurodegenerative disease. Far from relishing the loss of his bodily and cognitive functions, Flood decides to set a hit on himself. When his longtime mentor and business manager, Zvi Rabinowitz (Oscar winner Ben Kingsley, sleepwalking through another paycheck role), refuses the contract, Flood turns to his longtime foe, Marianna Antoinette (Pom Klementieff). She willingly accepts Flood’s $2M bounty, calling in various hitmen and hitwomen, all of them eager to dispatch Flood, partly for the cash involved, partly for the uptick in their respective reputations (i.e. kill the best, become the best).
Perry takes an excessive, overindulgent amount of time between set pieces, lingering unnecessarily on Flood and Maize’s burgeoning romantic relationship, his terminal diagnosis and its almost immediate rescission (lab error), and Flood’s frenzied attempt to call off the contract. Spoiler: A bitter, vengeful Antoinette refuses to rescind the contract on Flood, instead throwing in an additional $2M of her own money to sweeten the pot. That, in turn, unleashes multiple, ethnic-themed hit teams from around the world to hunt down and dispatch Flood.
When the action kicks into gear far too late, Bautista gets to put the physical skills he honed as a wrestler into good, though far from great, use. Despite the colourful, borderline offensive nature of the hit teams (unintelligible, hygiene-challenged Scots, a slash-and-dice, stereotypically dressed Asian team, lesbian hitwomen who dabble in exotic dancing, etc.), the action rarely rises above the rote or routine. More often than not, the mock-comic, cartoon-inspired, CGI-aided action barely crosses over into anonymous competency. Even the promising arrival of a flamenco-influenced hitman, Botas (Marko Zaror), ends almost as quickly as it began.
Throughout, Bautista brings his signature big-man magnetism to the proceedings, delivering sub-par dialogue, action stunt work, and the odd, overly long romantic interludes with thespian professionalism (i.e.,believability). He’s repeatedly proven himself capable of far more in the past (Knock at the Cabin, the Dune duology, Blade Runner 2049). It’s a pity then that The Killer’s Game asks so little of Bautista’s skill set, leaving an overwhelming sense of a major career opportunity missed.
The Killer’s Game opened theatrically on September 13 via Lionsgate and is now available on VOD.
