Review of the film "Killer's Game" (2024) by Pavel Belba

15.09.2024FFI

Honestly, this project was initially completely uninteresting, even when the main role was supposed to be played by Jason "Quote" StathamHowever, over time, a former stuntman joined the film JJ Perry (he staged the fights in the legendary fighting game "Undisputed 2" + staged action scenes in many modern blockbusters) as a director, who in turn brought up excellent movie fighters in the form of Scott Adkins (Undisputed 2-4, John Wick 4), Marco Zarora (Undisputed 3, John Wick 4) and Daniel Bernhard (Bloodsport 2-4, The Matrix Revolutions, John Wick) After that, the film was put on the "must see...but don't expect it" list.

The film's plot tells the story of killer Joe Flood (Batista), who decides to retire because he starts to feel unwell + he meets ballerina Maisie (Sofia Boutella), they have a love-carrot, and even the head of the killers is performed Ben Kingsley I am ready to let my subordinate retire and provide him with a work record book of a law-abiding citizen.

However, the doctor (it doesn't matter who plays him) says that Joe is terminally ill. The main character decides to order himself and give the insurance money to his new girlfriend (The state is like this: why should we NOT give this money to our wife :). And so, when the main character found her (Pom Klementieff), who agrees to organize his send-off, Joe learns that the doctor was mistaken... however... the money has been paid, the killers have been hired, which means the order must be carried out and the opinion of the client-victim does not matter to the organizers. This is where the whole action begins.

Despite the fact that I, in general, missed serious action films from good directors, I liked the comedy-romantic part of the film more than not. Dave although I got carried away with facelifts, but with Sofia looked good, especially with the voice acting by Maxim Sergeev (That very Voice :). The mix of action scenes and romantic scenes really went down well, and the scene in the church with the local priest was just... the best NON-action scene in the film.

The heroine was a bit annoying with her dirty jokes Pom and the character's wife Kingsley, but there were not enough of both in the frame, so everything is bearable.

Well, as for the action…here’s what:

55-year-old Dave Batista, who is currently aiming for the Talented Actors category, looks extremely bad in long action scenes. He is too slow, so his opponents are forced to hold back in fights, and he is too... not cool looking (loss of muscle mass, stupid haircut and facelifts interfere with the perception of his character... although over time, you still get used to it).

In general, the main stars are the biggest problems in films JJ Perry (by the way, he has a cool cameo here :). On the one hand Jay Fox (Day Shift) and batista (Killer's Game) not such sought-after actors that they would be given big budgets and the movie would stand out due to its scope (hello Brad Pitt, Ryan Reynolds and The Rock in David Leitch's films), on the other hand... they are not so diligent that they would show the audience the coolest action due to their training and achieved skills (hello Keanu in John Wick and Chris Hemsworth in Tyler Reich). That is, neither fish nor fowl.

At such moments you regret that JJ afraid to take a risk and make some 15-million dollar action movie with the same Scott Adkins starring for, say, Netflix, but which will deliver such action that it will put everyone and everything in its place. And instead, it tries to make a splash with mediocre pop.

If we take non-action characters like heroes Kingsley и Buentello (and you can also squeeze Klementieff in here), it’s nice to watch scenes with them, but nothing special.

But the cabbage patch of cartoonish killers who hunt the main character is the main plus of the film.

• Goyang Gang (Lee Hoon) - a kind of K-Pop hitman group with cold arms and black belts in taekwondo. Funny guys, who are fun to watch both in action scenes and in other scenes. Funny guys, although there are few of them.
• Lovedale (Terry Crews) - a ladies' man, a friend of the main character and an extremely cunning person, striving for maximum benefit. How glad I am that Ice Cube dropped out of the project and his place was taken by Terry, who, in general, does not even need to act, he pulls all his screen time with his charisma and appearance.
• Bottas (Marko Zaror) is the best dancer-killer in the world. Marco has only a couple of scenes here (like most killers), but all of them are… action scenes, so Saror has time to dance and beautifully beat everyone with the turntables. The main minus… his opponent is old and slow Batista.
• Max (Daniel Bernhard) is a war criminal, professional mercenary, bodyguard and lover of the main villain. He has the same screen time as the hero Terry, but unlike Scott and Marco, he is not allowed to swing his legs, only average shootouts. I liked his joke about the other killers in the film in the spirit of: "You are all like clowns from comics, and I am a professional."
• The Mackenzie Brothers (Scott Adkins and wrestler Drew McIntyre) — perpetually drunk, constantly arguing with each other, Scottish killer brothers. I would like to see much more of them. Yes, sometimes, from the jokes of the character Drew I wanted to break my facial bones with my palm, but Scott, the bastard is good. He looks cool, plays cool and, surprisingly, they let him show off almost all of his signature blows (he even hit a guyver kick). The main minus... his opponent is old and slow Batista.

I won't say anything about the two stuntwomen and the two bikers. The first ones were leaked, the second ones weren't even shown =)

In the end, I liked the movie overall. It was worth watching once, with some scenes to re-watch. I watched it to the end with pleasure, whereas I watched Perry's previous work exactly up to the scene with the Nazarene Brothers (Scott Adkins and Steve Howey), then turned off the movie with Fox.

A lot depends on your expectations, if you are expecting something of this level John Wick and Tyler Reika... then you will be disappointed, if you just want to watch a light movie with action and romance, then with a high degree of probability, you will have a good time. Because I did not expect anything cool from the film, I was satisfied. Write what you think about the film?

Author: Pavel Belba (Combat Cinematography and Martial Arts)

Home » Reviews » Author's reviews » Review of the film “Killer’s Game” (2024) by Pavel Belba
Tags: The Killer's Game, Ben Kingsley, JJ Perry, Dave Batista, Daniel Bernhard, Marko Zaror, Pom Klementieff, Scott Adkins, Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews

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