Killing Gunther Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Killing Gunther Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's the hitman's bodyguard when you really need him?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 23, 2017

Killing Gunther begins with a bang, both figuratively and literally, as a manic handheld shot darts and weaves into a diner where a hapless customer is confronted by an equally hapless man named Blake (Taran Killam), with Blake unfortunately blowing some rehearsed lines before he pulls out a gun and offs the guy trying to have a nice, quiet meal. It’s a patently absurd opening to the film, one upped to even sillier levels when Blake turns directly toward the camera and confesses that his rehearsed lines, if properly executed (pun probably intended), would have made the whole hit more effective. A number of subsequent vignettes introduce a couple of other (hapless) characters, including Sanaa (Hannah Simone) and Donnie (Bobby Moynihan), who have banded together with Blake to find and assassinate the world’s leading hitman, a mysterious fellow named Gunther (Arnold Schwarzenegger). It turns out that Blake, Donnie and Sanaa all make their livings by killing folks, and Gunther is simply a target too formidable to pass up. Killing Gunther approaches this unlikely material with the same sort of mockumentary approach that has made several Christopher Guest films like A Mighty Wind, Best in Show and For Your Consideration so appealing to those with jaded senses of humor (ahem). The results may be at least slightly more uneven than some of Guest’s offerings (which admittedly can be kind of hit and miss themselves at times), but for those who like Guest’s oeuvre (that’s right, I called it that) and who are fans of the cast, Killing Gunther will probably offer enough laughs to warrant checking out.

In what plays kind of like some alternate universe version of the way Jim Phelps used to organize his Mission: Impossible acolytes or Nate Ford assembled his Leverage team, Blake isn’t relying solely on Donnie and Sanaa to make his dream of offing Gunther a reality. A coterie of other eccentric types are introduced, including Gabe (Paul Brittain) as a supposed IT guru, and Ashley (Aubrey Sixto), Blake’s elderly mentor who seems to be kind of tubercular, but who continues to show “the kids” how it’s done, albeit often while he hacking his guts out into a soggy handkerchief. In this particular aspect, Killing Gunther is firmly in the Christopher Guest tradition of offering a whole group of misfits whose interactions only occasionally "rise" to standard dysfunctional levels.

What often works like aces in Killing Gunther is the totally absurd intersection of a documentary crew and just gonzo violence. It’s something that’s evident from the get go in that aforementioned opening sequence, but it recurs regularly throughout the film, as in the introduction of Sanaa, where she takes out what looks like a small army of insurgents and then walks up to the documentary crew, asking them if they want to stick around while she dissolves the bodies in acid. Later, once Gunther actually enters the picture (rather surprisingly late, for those who are expecting this to be a “Schwarzenegger picture”), things get even more absurd, with virtually every character pointing a gun at every other character, all while a documentary crew stands around capturing it all on film and/or video.

What tends not to work in Killing Gunther is the kind of self indulgent padding that will be familiar to fans of Killam’s and Moynihan’s Saturday Night Live shenanigans. It’s evident that Killam (who wrote and directed along with starring) wanted a quasi-improvisational ambience to suffuse the film, but there’s simply too much useless material here that doesn’t really add to the forward momentum of the story (a chief case in point being an extended and largely unfunny karaoke sequence).

Still, there’s some unexpected charm running through the film, and it’s a delight to see Arnold Schwarzenegger as something of a dandy, with a rather lunatic sense of humor as well. He’s obviously having a fine old time essaying a role like this, and he adds a jolt of energy to the final third or so of the film that it has had a hard time sustaining in its first two acts. Killam acquits himself quite well as a director and overall shaper of comedic moments in Killing Gunther, but he probably could have used a writing partner to help sharpen some of the screenplay’s duller moments.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf may have liked Killing Gunther just a tad more than I did. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Killing Gunther Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Killing Gunther is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This has a typically kind of loosey-goosey mockumentary presentational style that has a lot of handheld and other "jiggly cam" moments, along with a kind of "fly on the wall" approach that tends to keep sharpness and detail levels at bay in certain high octane sequences where the camera is especially mobile. On the whole though, this transfer offers excellent overall clarity and some superb fine detail when the camera is stationary and lighting levels are supportive. The palette is nicely suffused most of the time (a couple of dark interior scenes appear a bit on the murky side), and with a total absence of overt grading techniques on display, everything looks accurate and natural throughout. There are no issues with compression anomalies or image instability.

Killing Gunther Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Killing Gunther's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track gets a bit more of a workout than some might expect from a "traditional" mockumentary (if there is such a thing), courtesy of the film's emphasis on little things like, you know, bombs going off and sprays of machine gun fire taking out various assailants. That said, the bulk of this film does hew to mockumentary tropes of offering a lot of talk, much of which is delivered straight to (or at least in the general direction of) the camera. As such, immersion tends to kind of come and go in this audio presentation, though a number of crowd scenes and outdoor material does provide quite a bit of surround activity. Fidelity is fine throughout, and there are no issues with distortion, dropouts or other damage.

Killing Gunther Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bloopers (1080p; 5:49)


• Deleted Scenes

  Overly Protective Father (1080p; 1:23)

  Hitbook: The Official Hitman's Social Networking Site (00:48)

Killing Gunther Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I frankly wasn't expecting much from Killing Gunther, which may in fact be the best way to approach this fitfully amusing comedy. When material lands here, it lands rather well, and there are some undeniable laughs to be found in the story and (especially) the deadpan presentation. But there's also some needless padding and self indulgent bits that tend to fray comedic momentum. Schwarzenegger is actually quite charming in a kind of shamelessly hammy role. Technical merits are generally strong, and (believe me, no one is more surprised than I am) Killing Gunther comes Recommended.