Aim for the heart—even if it’s your own. 3.5/5
In an era where assassins on screen tend to be brooding, bald, and philosophically tormented, The Killer’s Game arrives like a switchblade to the velvet rope. Directed by J.J. Perry ( Day Shift ), this 2024 action-comedy adapts Jay R. Bonansinga’s novel with a gleefully bloody smirk, proving that when a hitman’s life falls apart, it falls apart with ballistic missiles and bad puns.
The Killer’s Game is not a masterpiece. It is, however, a blast. It understands the golden rule of the action-comedy: take the premise seriously, but never the situation. Like John Wick remade by the Coen brothers after a sugar rush, it’s a film about death that celebrates the messy, ridiculous, precious business of staying alive.
Where The Killer’s Game surprises is in its heart. Bautista, with his mournful bulldog face, sells the loneliness of a man who has only ever communicated through bullets. His scenes with Boutella are tender and awkward, a rom-com bleeding into a bloodbath. The script, by Rand Ravich and James Coyne, juggles tonal whiplash with confidence—one moment you’re weeping over a dying hitman’s last wish, the next you’re watching a man get impaled by a badminton racket.