The new action-comedy, The Killer’s Game, packs a wallop in its well-choreographed and entertaining moments of gunplay and hand to hand combat. J.J. Perry’s sophomore outing as director gets these scenes down. The filmmaker was a stunt coordinator on the John Wick series, so, when it comes to violence, the wilder the better. One could make the argument that the action in this film borrows its style a bit too heavily from that beloved franchise, but Perry makes it pop.

Where the film hits potholes is in its tonal imbalance. The Killer’s Game wants to be a Rom-Com with action. It wants to be a semi-serious character study with bits of humor and action. It wants to be a hip, retro-styled cool comedy with action. A film can successfully exist as all of these genres at once (a perfect example is Doug Liman’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith from 2005), but this one gets lost too-often and never finds a good balance.

By now, hitman films are a dime a dozen. Since the massive success of the John Wick movies, everyone’s out to catch a piece of the killers-hunting-killers lightning. Some do pretty well (Bullet Train, Atomic Blonde). Others (The Mother, Monkey Man, and many more) fail to have anything interesting to offer beyond their fight scenes. The Killer’s Game has some good moments and a lot of great action, but the screenplay finds nothing new in its well-worn story of a hitman finding love and dodging bullets. It isn’t that the film is bad, every beat in the screenplay just feels too familiar. 

A truly excellent Dave Bautista is Joe Flood, a feared and super-skilled assassin. He is the best in the business and is respected by the international pipeline of killers for hire. Joe has his own moral code. He only kills those who deserve it; human traffickers, murderous drug lords, etc. His boss and mentor, Zvi, is played by Ben Kingsley. While one would be forgiven for assuming the actor is “slumming” here, the Oscar-winner brings a zen-like calm to the role. His scenes with Bautista give the film a dose of humanity amongst all the macho posturing. Kingsley does fine work with a role that could have been a throwaway.

In the film’s exciting opening, Joe is executing an assignment at an interpretive dance recital, where he saves the lead dancer, Maize (Sofia Boutella), from the bad guys. Their blood-soaked meet-cute becomes a full-on romance, as the two fall in love. This is where the screenplay (by Rand Ravich, James Coyne, and Simon Kinberg, from a novel by Jay Bonasinga) holds its best moments. Director Perry allows time for the audience to become intoxicated by their budding relationship. Bautista and Boutella have a warm chemistry and their well-written conversations are quite sweet, as the two actors give their characters a natural quality. Action films are rarely allowed such soft and tender moments as we witness between Joe and Maize.

Now in love, Joe wants out of the business, but he is dealt a blow that will change the course of everything. Going to the doctor to find the cause for his near debilitating headaches, Joe is diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease. In only a few months, he will experience rapid physical deterioration followed by death. Not wanting his newfound love to see him die in such a manner, Joe takes out a hit on himself and wishes to leave everything to Maize when he is gone. As he loves his dear friend like a son, Zvi refuses to sign a contract on Joe, which leads him to another handler, Marianna (Pom Klementieff), a woman who is more than happy to do it, as Joe killed her father long ago. 

The following sentences contain a SPOILER. If you have not seen the trailers (where it is given away), skip to the next paragraph. Here we go- Joe’s doctor calls to inform him of a blunder. His lab results were mixed up with another patient’s records. He is not dying and immediately calls off the hit. Marianna refuses and sends a wild array of killers to get the job done.

It is here where Perry abruptly turns the film into a throwback Grindhouse comic book, where intrigue and character development are traded in for cartoonish villains with designs pulled from too many familiar films. Terry Crews is the 70s-tinged Blaxploitation-styled killer named “Lovedahl”, Lucy Cork and Shaina West are a vicious pair called “Ginny and Tonic”, Marko Zaror is a flamenco dancing assassin named “El Botas”, and so on.

The best of this vicious lot are the Mackenzie Brothers, a hard-drinking Scottish duo of death with thick brogues that require humorous subtitles. Modern Martial Arts legend Scott Adkins and Scottish wrestling star Drew McIntyre play the brothers with gusto. Their combined performances are hilarious and their fights against Bautista are the best in the film.

Unfortunately, it all seems too familiar and derivative of better movies. One of the film’s major flaws comes around the halfway point when characters start throwing out catch phrases. The script had not previously set up this type of overused 80s and 90s action movie cliché. When Joe starts killing those who dare come against him, he ends every death with a one-liner. Nothing elicits more groans than resorting to this type of hackneyed phrasing. To hear Sir Ben Kingsley utter the phrase, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” is soul crushing. 

The Killer’s Game tries hard and works in fits and starts. It succeeds in its action, even if the computer-generated blood splatter is sometimes too cartoonish. The fight choreography is entertaining, the love story between Joe and Maize is intoxicating, and a trimmed down Dave Bautista turns in another fine performance that proves he has what it takes to be a major player.

When it is all said and done, this is an occasionally fun film that ends up as something too generic to leave a lasting impression.

The Killer’s Game

Written by Rand Ravich, James Coyne, & Simon Kinberg (From a novel by Jay Bonasinga)

Directed by J.J. Perry

Starring Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Ben Kingsley, Pom Klementieff, Terry Crews, Scott Adkins, Drew McIntyre

R, 104 Minutes, Lionsgate, Dogbone Entertainment, Endurance Media