The Killer’s Game is a film that the few who knew about it have been waiting for literally a long time nearly three decades, as it took quite a long time for the script to go through the development phase. This movie has faced a lot of problems and transformations since its conception in mid 90s as an action comedy thriller film adapted from Jay Bonansinga’s novel of 1997. The process of making this movie seems to be a movie in itself with various studios, directors and actors being attached and detaching to the film at some point, kinda of similar to whats going on with Blade aat Marvel. Finally under the direction of J. J. Perry and starring Dave Bautista this movie is expected to provide the audience with quite an unpredictable and full of action ride.
The plot focuses on an experienced contract killer who upon receiving a lethal diagnostic on his health plans to kill himself. This decision starts a sequence of actions that must be categorized as complete chaos and anarchy, in the course as the hero struggle against numerous opponents and his desire for revenge, he learns that the preliminary diagnosis was incorrect, after the event this assumption set the path for a strong combination of the suspense, action and black humor, which should help to create a new vision of the assassin’s world.
After so many years on the making, the film manage to gather quite the cast and crew, the film’s director and producers are determined to make the movie packed with great action scenes at the same time, comedy and deeper drama. Long development time could have been beneficial for the project because during that time the project could have been matured and it could have brought changes to its concept.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327785/
- Platform: Theaters
- Release: September 13, 2024
The Plot
The story of the film begins with one major event in the life of the main character who is an experienced contract killer, role played by Dave Bautista as Joe Flood who was diagnose suffering of terminal illness, he takes a drastic measure of setting up an assassination of himself, this choice leads to a domino effect where everyone becomes a chaos and commits mayhem after the contract he put on himself can not be cancel, leading to a series of dangerous confrontations, basically the world goes against him, his own co worker assassins.A whole army of former coworkers comes out of the woodworks, every one of them a talented murderer with his or her reasons for it, these assassins all jump the protagonist like vultures and what we get is an action packed with some black comedy.
Its interesting and very cleaver to make the audience believe they understands the story line making everyone believe it is as simple that Joe is willing to die so early on the story but in fact he is presented with some new fact which alters everything.
The Cast
The cast is filled with top actors and actresses who have put their best into the movie. This is a story of Joe Flood a professional killer played by Dave Bautista, who suffers from a terminal disease and sets up his own death. Bautista, who starred in Guardians of the Galaxy and Blade Runner 2049, will use his large stature, humor and dramatic acting expirience to offer a complex performance of a hired killer who finds himself in a rather unprofessional situation. The character of Joe’s girlfriend is played by Sofia Boutella and she gives the film a female warrior side with her background in films like Kingsman: The Secret Service and Atomic Blonde, Boutella is well known to action roles and her role in the film is predicted to introduce both the emotional and the physical reaction to the character. Pom Klementieff who worked with Bautista in the Guardians of the Galaxy series, plays a vengeful villain and as in the Marvel films combines comedy and aggression. The cast also includes Scott Adkins who is a martial arts expert known for his role in Undisputed and John Wick: Chapter 4, who will complement with some great action sequence scenes. Terry Crews who is known for his comedy in Brooklyn Nine Nine and action in The Expendables will be another chess piece to the ensemble cast and may add a comic side and physical strength. The incredible Ben Kingsley who has acted in many many films and such masterpieces as Gandhi and Schindler’s List will lift up the movie, playing the role of a teacher or an opponent.
Behind the Scenes
J. J. Perry has the advantage of being a director with a good experience after working in several action films, originally cast as a martial artist and stunt performer, but over time became an indispensable stunt coordinator and second unit director and finally a director, a man who knows all the in and out when it comes to action scenes.The story of the development of the film is a story of endurance since its inception in the mid 90s, the project has seen numerous changes:
- New line cinema, Paramount Pictures, and Lionsgate among other studios.
- Other directors that have been considered include John Woo and Wolfgang Petersen.
- Other actors attached in the past include Wesley Snipes and Jason Statham.
- Several drafts by other screen writers such as Simon Kinberg and James Coyne
Audience Expectations and Reactions
For many this film came up as a surprise out of no where, it was known that Dave was working on a couple of projects but for the most part his most recent one "My Spy The Eternal City" caught the most attention leaving "The Killers Game" behind but in a way its even bigger, with a better cast, experience director on action thrillers and a film that has been on the works for many years ago.It is expected that the movie touch certain themes but do not develop much on them as the main focus is action and comedy, drama is going to take over a secondary element to the movie. Themes like Ethical guidelines in high profile occupations for as I'm sure there are a couple of killers who once work with Joe now willing to kill him to cash on the bounty. Redemption and second changes in life, very well represented by the event where Joe is told that the diagnosis was wrong and he is not dying anytime soon, huge impact by misinformation that almost end his life, two themes that are so important now days in society as we don't often give second chances to others while destiny does to us.
I'm not expecting the movie to be a dramatic one but based on the overall environment and main events that goes into Joe's life this are a few of the themes the film might focus on, plus it is expected to be a lot of comedy within the film.
The film in itself is an example of perseverance and patience as it took so long to be finish, nearly three decades of Hollywood’s output. The director J. J. Perry also contributes, who works with stunt experience and action choreography, which will provide quality action scenes when joined with the lead actor Dave Bautista and other talented actors and actresses the movie can offer a unique and entertaining experience.
I can see how many can be a bit skeptic about this movie considering everything is has gone through, the more positive audience might think all that time serve well to get it prepare but in reality things don't necessarily happen that way in real life, I also have my doubts if this is just going to be an average movie with a lot of hype after the trailer.
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