Twice the Action

I picked out a few mindless action movies with low expectations: The Killer’s Game (2024) and Hidden Strike (2023). I wasn't disappointed.

The Killer's Game stars Dave Bautista as the titular killer. His assignment is to kill someone at a modern dance performance at the Budapest Opera House. Very swank. He makes the kill, and takes a moment to observe the main dancer on stage, Sophia Boutella. When security starts shooting up the place, she hurts her ankle. So in the confusion, he picks her up and carries her outside. They have an instant attraction, but he is struck by a blinding headache, and runs off. 

But he tracks her down later to return her phone, and they start a cute courtship. He is very hesitant and shy, because of his work, and she thinks he's charming. But he goes to the doctor, and discovers that he has Creutzfeldt-Jakobs, and will soon be incapacitated, then dead.

Now around here, I got really excited. First, when he first went to the doc, the doc mentioned his scars and injuries, calling them his "resume", and cautioned him about CTE. In real life, Bautista is trying to move out of action movies and into more human roles, losing a lot of weight. Then he is talking to Boutella about her ankle and they start comparing injuries. So there is a fighting/dancing analogy being. I would like to see dance choreography treated like fight choreography in movies, bringing the excitement and skill without so much violence. I couldn't wait to see how this played out.

I knew the next part from the basic plot summary: He decides to put a contract out on himself, so he wouldn't go through the dementia stages of CJD. He goes to his handler, Ben Kingsley. For some reason, Kingsley is sort of playing his character, the Rabbi, from Lucky Number Slevin. He refuses to kill Bautista, who is like a son to him. So he goes to Pom Klementieff, a Korean mobster whose father was killed by Bautista. She'll take the job, and starts sending killer after him. 

And as you might have guessed, he was misdiagnosed. He does not have CJD, maybe it's just stress? I feel like this is a common movie plot, but can't place it. 

So I'm all psyched for a movie about moving out of a violent profession due to wear and tear, relating it to Bautista's real life aspirations, including some relationship between dancing and fighting. Instead, we get a ridiculous succession of themed assassins trying to kill Bautista and failing. They include a flamenco fighter, two stripper fighters, two violent Scotsmen, moto-cross killers, a gang of Korean pop-star types, with Terry Crews hanging back, waiting for the fee to go up. It was fun and silly, and very much not what I was hoping for. Still thought it was great.

Hidden Strike also starred and ex-wrestler, Jobn Cena, as well as Jackie Chan. It's set in the near future, during the oil wars. In an unnamed Middle Eastern country, rebels are besieging an oil refinery. Jackie Chan's security team is called in to extract them (including his estranged daughter). Meanwhile, John Cena is a mercenary, semi-retired, heading up an orphanage for the kids whose parents died in the wars. His brother convinces him to do One Last Mission to get money for the villagers' water. 

It turns out more or less that Cena's brother is on the team attacking the refinery. Or maybe not - there seem to be many groups at play. Anyway, Cena and Jackie first fight, then join together to save the hostages and the village. 

There's some cute interplay between Cena and Chan, and Chan can still bring it both in the back-talk and fighting. There's one set piece where Chan is fighting the bad guy in a factory with a fire suppressant cannon. A good Chan fight always manages to use all the possibilities of a prop or setting, and this was a good one. There are also several bus fights, a trope I enjoy. But overall, this was a mess. I think the hand of the Chinese government is way too prominent, so the dramatic beats are all undercut by propaganda beats. 

Still, I didn't expect much and wasn't disappointed. I got more than I needed from one movie, and about what I expected from the other.