King of Killers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

King of Killers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 11, 2024

John Wick + Mortal Kombat x Escape Room + One Graphic Novel Adaptation - Originality = King of Killers, a slow to start, hyper-edited action-oriented afternoon nap that presents as an all-out battle to the death but limps along with little to offer the bloodthirsty genre fans among us. At least not anything new. Frank Grillo and (briefly) Stephen Dorff are about the only familiar faces in the lineup of assassins turned survivalist combatants in a deadly game of one-upmanship. It's a tiresome climb from the first to the final round really, and that's after the opening hour threatens to put you to sleep with a whopping single action scene (beyond the film's pre-credits montage of hired-gun jobs. King of Killers is very, very, and I mean very chatty too, spending more time with inane conversation and hollow insults tossed from one assassin to the next than in what we all know we're here for: the action and, well, crowning a king of killers I suppose. Will forgiving genre junkies enjoy it? Sure. If they can look past the low budget, hesitant direction, pacing and performance issues, tough-to-follow fights, plot holes, contrivances and... hm. Come to think of it, some people will no doubt get a kick out of King of Killers, but I can't for the life of me see why. That's what I'm here for, though! Allow me to lower your expectations to the point that the film can only be better than you expect going in. Happy to serve.

Based on the graphic novel by writer-director Kevin Grevioux (who played the werewolf Raze in Underworld), King of Killers follows former Agency hitman Marcus Garan (Alain Moussi) as he attempts to unravel the mystery behind a tragic incident that hits too close to home. When offered a $10 million contract to eliminate the world's greatest assassin, Marcus travels to Tokyo to meet the client (Frank Grillo), but soon discovers other professional killers have been invited as well for a contest that only one assassin is able to win. Now Marcus and his fellow guns for hire must confront the deadly, mythical assassin or die trying. The film also stars Grevioux, Stephen Groff, Shannon Kook, Marie Avgeropoulos, Ryan Tarran, Georges St. Pierre, Amy Groening, Gianni Capaldi, Marina Stephenson Kerr, Zoe Worn, Tom Anniko, Dennis Lafond, Romy Peniche, Solange Sookram, Alan Wong and Shara Kim.

First the action. Dark, frenetic, cut and edited to hell, and full of strange, comicbook-y gunplay in which bullets follow some interesting laws of physics, it's difficult to tell what's happening when fighters clash. Oh, and did I mention the splashes of monochromatic Crayola colors to distinguish fights and hallways from one another? Blazing red. Electric blue. Neon green. Sometimes too bright, sometimes too dark, but almost always making it that much more impossible to track a fighter's location, who's hitting who, and where that spurt of blood just came from. The thrill of John Wick and its disciples -- Frank Grillo's own Boss Level was an absolute blast and one of my favorite action films of 2020 -- is that the camera takes a step back and revels in showing a showdown unfold. You can have some fun and mix it up. Style's great, I get it. But it's imperative that an audience can follow a fight. If not, you're watching a bunch of colors, shadows, fists and guns do... something. It's frustrating, nauseating at its worst, and spoils even the best of genre pics. And King of Killers wouldn't be a great flick even if it's action were repaired.

Grillo hams it up as the film's chief baddie but the rest of the assassins are predictably a ragtag bunch of cutthroats and testosterone-fueled heavy hitters. There's not much in the way of variety, other than in demeanor and weapon of choice, and when they aren't battling each other or Grillo, they go toe-to-toe with generic mask-wearing henchmen and sword-toting geisha to up the film's body count. It's all very Mortal Kombat, albeit without the colorful characters and fan-favorites. (Imagine an MK movie where everyone is Lewis Tan's Cole Young but keeps trying to be a Kano or a Kung Lao. Meh.) Then there's the script, which is pulpy enough to sound like an indie graphic novel, but that same quick-penned, jaw-clenching dialogue barked out by live-action actors? Ooph. It gets rough fast. Kudos to the cast for trying their best to chew on every word and really sell it. But they can only do so much with this little. Grillo is especially eager to please, and comes closest to delivering despite some truly cheeseball lines. Yet even he can't lift the film out of the bargain bin its Blu-rays and DVDs are destined to fill. Worse, the sequel teased at the end of King of Killers pitches like a much better flick. One I would have rather watched. We'll see if it ever makes it to the screen.

King of Killers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

At least it looks the part. Lionsgate delivers an impressive 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation that's as razor sharp as an assassin's katana. Too much? Alright, I'll ditch the lame similes. The at-times aggravating swaths of color I mentioned in my review are technically dazzling, regardless of what they do to the poor action scenes. Searing reds, crackling blues, fiery oranges and piercing greens fill the screen with powerful vibrancy. Contrast is hot but stylistically suited to the tone of the film; black levels are so deep they tend to crush and oppress shadow detail, but it's clearly the intended appearance Grevioux and DP Paul Suderman are going for. It certainly imbues the image with an inky graphic novel aesthetic. Skintones follow the path carved for them, rarely stopping at lifelike and absorbing whatever colors surround the fighters. Thankfully, detail rarely falters. Darker scenes do tend to make it hard to see everything in the background (and sometimes the foreground), but edges remain crisply defined, textures are almost flawlessly resolved, and there isn't much in the way of banding or other anomalies to complain about. (Though, not to bring it up yet again, but the palette does lead to some additional crushing and the tiniest hint of infrequent artifacting when the action revs up.) All that being said, King of Killers boasts a terrific video presentation that doesn't disappoint.

King of Killers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

King of Killers features a... ahem, killer DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. Anyone? Anyone? Ok. I'll back off the cheesy wordplay. It's bad anyway. The film's sound design delivers a typical modern action experience that doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it definitely engages on a technical level. Low-end output packs serious punch, granting impacts, gunfire, explosions and splintering furniture notable weight and power. Rear speaker activity is fairly engaging too, grabbing hold of any chaos and spreading it eagerly across the soundfield, creating an immersive series of hallways, stairwells, open spaces and holding rooms. Directionality is quite good, though precise would be an overstatement. Sometimes it's just loud and busy, substituting the illusion of directional precision with eruptions of effects that don't really have a spatial home. Not a big deal. Fortunately, dialogue is intelligible and nicely prioritized throughout, no matter how crazy the soundscape becomes.

King of Killers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No special features to speak of.

King of Killers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

King of Killers takes its sweet time ramping up to the actual tournament of assassins, verging on boring, then suddenly packs everything into the back half of the film, growing so frantic it then verges on overly chaotic. In between there isn't much to enjoy either, with problems that engulf everything from the performances to the pacing, cinematography, action choreography, dialogue, plot and more. The film's Blu-ray release is better, thanks to a strong video and audio presentation, but its lack of extras leave this one short on value. Still, at its current bargain pricepoint ($9.99), you could do much... well, no. You could do a bit worse, but this one's pretty bad, guys. Enjoy if you can. I'm excited to move on to greener pastures.