Hitman Joe Flood (Dave Bautista), is diagnosed with a terminal illness and as a result decides to put a hit on himself as there only two ways you leave this game. However, after a mix up with his diagnosis, Flood has jumped the gun.
The Killers Game (2024) has arrived on Prime UK from director JJ Perry. This his second bit of directing following Day Shift (2022) which can be found on Netflix UK. As well as this, he did stunt work on John Wick Chapter 2 (2017) and Fast & Furious 8 (2017).
From an audience perspective, JJ Perry does deliver some solid action in the film, which going in is what we are hoping for.
That’s down to Perry understanding that Bautista is a unit of guy – so that really reflects in the stunt work that the character of Flood more overpowers than anything else at times. It is like watching Bautista in his WWE days.
One great sequence is when he finds out his diagnosis is wrong. A group of South Korean assassins who have a funny introduction before arrive at Flood’s house, get used to that it can be graining work for them, but everyone gets on.
But during the fight Flood grabs one of young men of the group, as I said, like something out of WWE – Bautista throws the guy into a metal frame. It’s awesome. Or, one of ladies in the group has blades that connect to look like a tray – she gets Flood in the shoulders but Flood punches her certainly defies gravity.
It’s over the top, but that’s the appeal of it. Don’t go in expecting realistic stuff like The Raid 1 & 2, but that’s not a bad thing – because sometimes it’s enjoyable to have stupid action.
Even then, it works as Perry understands that with Bautista’s incredible physique, you can’t expect him to do incredible flips and movements, so you build the action around that physique which enables great contrast.
An example is when Flood sets a trip for all of the assassin’s – two of them are Scottish – the Mckenzie Brothers with Drew McIntrye as Rory and Scott Adkins as Angus.
In the fight with Angus, we see that great contrast because Adkins is an action legend but physique wise is completely different. So the character of Angus can move quicker by using that leanness.
Yes, if you are wondering, Adkins Scottish accent is not that great and McIntrye is overdoing his as always.
However, he does overstretch the runtime. The film is 1h 44m. Far too long for this type of film, that comes down to whole relationship Flood has with Maize in heading photo played by Sofia Boutella just feels surface level.
Could take that away just have it Flood finds out the diagnose is wrong tries to cancel the hit but Antoinette the fixer played by Pom Klementieff refuse so Flood must make his way through them all.
Understand though from JJ Perry perspective by having Maize it glue for the conflict but don’t really need it could be easily taken out.
Performance wise this might not be a Bautista performance that will be remembered but it’s still solid automatically you believe that Bautista is this unit of a hitman just look at the guy.
Outside of that Baustista does bring some solid comedy to Flood character good example of this when he trying to message Maize, he doesn’t know what to say.
Terry Crews is fellow hitman Lovedahl its just Crews being Crews.
Boutella is fine as Maize but as already mentioned the chemistry is not there and just doesn’t feel necessary to what the film wants you to believe.
Fun supporting in Ben Kingsley as Rabionwitz and Alex Kingston as Sharon Rabionwitz.
Overall, The Killer’s Game (2024) is a solid streaming film that delivers enjoyable action even if its overstreched.
