Review: King of Killers
Frank Grillo challenges several of the best assassins in the world to try and take him down in the new action thriller King of Killers, out now in select theaters and VOD/Digital.
Alain Moussi stars as Marcus Garan, a former CIA assassin who now secretly works freelance jobs, unbeknownst to his wife and daughter. While on a job, his wife arrives at the location of the hit and is killed, sending Garan on a mission to find the killer. His quest for justice is interrupted a year later when he’s invited, along with several other top-tier assassins, to Tokyo to take down the legendary “King of Killers”, Jorg Drakos (Frank Grillo), who reveals he’s set a contest to see if any of them can take him out. If they do, they will get $10 million. King of Killers writer/director Kevin Grevioux is one of the other assassins along with Maria Avgeropoulos, Georges St. Pierre, Shannon Kook, and Ryan Tarran. The plot has a great hook with the competition to take down Drakos and it lends itself to plenty of solid one-on-one fights as Drakos takes on each assassin in their attempts to claim the prize but there are some plotting issues. There are a few instances of the assassins fighting each other to try and eliminate the competition but these fights are quickly resolved and everyone seemingly moves on without any questions or issues. There’s also the plot point of the murder of Garan’s wife but the way it is initially shot is pretty confusing and it seems less like a murder and more like she just got shot through a door, which makes Garan’s conspiracy board and mission seem ridiculous as motivation if it was just an accident. The ending is also a mess and leaves things on a bit of a sour note with a string of absurd exposition drops, twists, and sequel setups that may never be resolved if a sequel to this movie isn’t greenlit.
Frank Grillo carries the movie as soon as he arrives on the scene as Drakos. He’s a fantastic villain with a supremely cocky attitude, a great look when he’s in fight mode, wearing a green Oni mask and dispatching his foes in brutal fashion with an assortment of weapons. Alain Moussi is also solid and likable as our hero and he’s definitely improved his acting chops since the first Kickboxer reboot movie. He still seems more at home in the action scenes than the dramatic scenes and his physicality is on display in every fight, delivering some excellent kicks and fights against Drakos and other opponents. The fights are impressively brutal, with lots of blood, chopped limbs and there’s the added fun of Drakos rigging the building where the contest takes place with various traps that add to the danger. The rest of the cast is solid although they feel pretty stock as far as characters, like the angry British guy or the silent Japanese samurai assassin. Each assassin gets introduced by Drakos reading their bios from a folder and it would have been cool if we had gotten a scene while each character was being introduced that maybe was a flashback to a previous job to really highlight how badass they all are. Stephen Dorff also shows up but he’s in it for so little that it’s more cameo than a co-starring role and he’s doing his usual Stephen Dorff thing. There are hints that maybe he’ll factor in more if there’s a sequel but we’ll have to wait and see if that materializes.
King of Killers is a solid and fun action movie with a few issues in regards to pacing and plotting, especially the ending, but if you want to see some cool fights and Frank Grillo be a cocky villainous badass, then you’ll definitely get that from the movie.