The Killers Game

This weekend, The Killer's Game, a new action comedy starring Dave Bautista releases in theaters. The Killer's Game follows a veteran hitman who orders a hit on himself after being diagnosed with a deadly disease. When he learns that he was misdiagnosed, he must defend himself against the assassins who are coming to kill him. The trailers sold me on this film. Dave Bautista is fun in these types of movies and I am always up for an entertaining action comedy.

I found this movie to be a bit mediocre. There are a few solid moments here. This movie felt like John Wick 2 and 3 where the assassins are coming after John. The castle sequences were quite a bit of fun. We get to see Dave Bautista fight all these different assassins one right after the other with no real break in between. The assassins themselves were somewhat fun. They each had a little gimmick that made them stand out from the others in the movie. The movie also has quite a few funny moments in it. Not all of them are places super well but they are still funny.

However, beyond that, this movie is pretty forgettable. The characters themselves are not memorable at all. They don't have defining character traits or any growth that they go through. I remember them by their actors' names, not their character's names which shows that they didn't leave much of a mark. I felt that the Terry Crews character was a bit pointless. He was set up to be the big final bad guy but all he is used for is to bring Dave Bautista's girlfriend to the final battle. There is no big fight scene between the two even that would have been a lot of fun. I also felt that the humor didn't fit in with the scene. Sometimes, the movie would just stop the momentum to tell a joke instead of fitting it in organically. There is this whole confession scene that just feels a bit shoehorned in instead of being included naturally. The plot itself is also paper thin. It is clear that the filmmakers were focused more on the action sequences than they were on the plot holding it all together. Finally, I thought that the 3rd act was a bit anticlimactic. The middle portion has this big fight scene with all of these unique assassins while the third act becomes a generic shootout in a church where we don't even get a showdown between Dave Bautista and Terry Cruise.

In the end, while this movie did have some fun action sequences, the overall plot and climax left a lot to be desired. This movie would be pass better as a direct-to-streaming action movie instead of a theatrical release.

Score: 6/10 Grade: C+ Recommendation: Wait to stream it