{"id":4007,"date":"2024-09-14T14:54:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T14:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4007"},"modified":"2024-10-19T21:50:14","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T01:50:14","slug":"the-killers-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/14\/the-killers-game\/","title":{"rendered":"The Killer\u2019s Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Killer\u2019s Game<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 104 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence throughout, language, some sexual material, brief drug use, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: J.J. Perry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rand Ravich and James Coyne\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Roque Banos\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Flavio Martinez Labiano\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 13, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Pom Klementieff, Ben Kingsley, Drew McIntyre, George Somner.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0How is it that the action-comedy The Killer\u2019s Game<\/strong> managed a theatrical release despite having direct-to-Netflix written all over it? It\u2019s entertaining enough, but it hardly merits a costly trip to the multiplex. It\u2019s too bad because Dave Bautista appears to be shaping up as the next big action star to make the jump from the wrestling ring. We\u2019re talking the next Dwayne Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bautista plays Joe Flood, a professional hitman who only kills those who deserve it, like the human trafficker he takes out in Budapest during a ballet performance. It turns out to be a turning point in his life because that\u2019s where he meets Maize (Boutella, Atomic Blonde), a dancer he saves from being trampled by the fleeing crowd. They fall in love which makes him decide to retire from his profession and start leading the good life. Believe me when I say it won\u2019t be as simple as that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Joe has been experiencing debilitating headaches lately. He sees a doctor who takes his time getting back to him with test results. When he does, it\u2019s not good news. He tells Joe that he has an incurable neurodegenerative disease and only three months to live. Not wanting Maize to watch him suffer, he takes out a contract on himself. When his handler Svi (Kingsley, Gandhi) refuses to handle it, he goes to rival handler Marianna (Guardians of the Galaxy co-star Klementieff) who\u2019s only too glad to accept. She\u2019s been wanting to do Joe in since he killed her father several years before. She puts some of her best people on it to make sure it gets done right.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now for the twist! Seconds before the contract takes effect, Joe gets another call from his doctor telling him there\u2019s been a mix-up at the lab and he\u2019s not dying after all. He tries to cancel the hit, but it\u2019s too late. Things are already in motion. All Joe can do is kill the killers before they kill him. In response, Marianna brings in everybody she has to finish the job, one that pays $4M.<\/p>\n

\u00a0From this point, The Killer\u2019s Game<\/strong> becomes an ultra-violent free-for-all with hired assassins and mercenaries coming out of the woodwork to take a crack at killing Joe. We get a dancing Spaniard, a pair of drunken Scotsmen (replete with subtitles), a motorcycle-riding duo, two lesbian strippers from the UK and what can only be described as a murderous K-pop group. We also get Terry Crews (America\u2019s Got Talent) as an assassin who initially turns down the gig until the bounty goes up. He gets saddled with Marianne\u2019s idiotic nephew Money (Somner) who wants to be part of the game. He\u2019s one of those foreigners who learned English from listening to rap.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by former stuntman J.J. Perry (The Day Shift), The Killer\u2019s Game<\/strong> is a weird blend of John Wick, Short Time and Mortal Kombat. The violence is plentiful, OTTT and extremely bloody. People are shot, stabbed, slashed, beaten, blown up and torn apart. The body count is high. All deaths come with a liberal amount of gore. Unfortunately, it\u2019s all CGI. I guess audiences wouldn\u2019t find The Killer\u2019s Game<\/strong> so funny if the gore looked real.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bautista definitely has screen presence. He was great as Drax the Destroyer in the Guardians of the Galaxy films and Rabban in the Dune movies. He showed a flair for comedy in My Spy. He even did okay in the M. Night Shyamalan stinker Knock at the Cabin. We won\u2019t talk about Stuber mainly because nobody even remembers it. As for his performance in The Killer\u2019s Game<\/strong>, it\u2019s fine. It\u2019s neither great nor awful. He looks like he\u2019s enjoying himself in the midst of all the idiocy. I like Boutella and not just because she\u2019s gorgeous. She has this fiery quality that serves her well. Sadly, it\u2019s set on medium-low for this outing. Klementieff hams it up nicely. At one point, she channels Gary Oldman\u2019s character in Leon the Professional (1994). You\u2019ll know it when you see it. Kingsley lends some class as Joe\u2019s wise sage of a handler. Crews is funny, but he\u2019s too underused. He should have been more integral to the action.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In its defense, The Killer\u2019s Game<\/strong> doesn\u2019t suck. It\u2019s loud, chaotic, profane, barely coherent and totally nonsensical. It\u2019s more amusing than funny. It\u2019s never boring. At the same time, it pales in comparison to better hitman comedies like The Hitman\u2019s Bodyguard. It\u2019s enjoyable but unmemorable. Chances are it\u2019ll be forgotten by the time it makes its way to streaming platforms where it belongs. That should be in about three weeks.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Killer\u2019s Game (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 104 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence throughout, language, some sexual material, brief drug use, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: J.J. Perry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rand Ravich and James Coyne\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Roque Banos\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Flavio Martinez Labiano\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 13, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/The-Killers-Game-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4007"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5466,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4007\/revisions\/5466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}