PLOT: An assassin is given a contract to kill seven people worldwide, only to discover the targets are also assassins who have been hired to kill him.
REVIEW: I don’t think it’s shocking to say that Assassin Club is not a good movie. Anytime a film releases with a host of recognizable faces, and they seem to be dropping it as quietly as possible, the signs are not good. The film mostly seems to care about being “cool” versus providing an entertaining story. And given that it’s about an assassin who has to kill a bunch of other assassins, the roadmap seems simple. You’d be shocked at how much they fumble the bag here.
Henry Golding stars as Morgan, and while the premise seems like this guy would be intriguing, he’s mostly a bore. I couldn’t tell you one trait of this guy outside of the fact that he kills people. I know Golding can act, so the fact that his character is so void of personality feels like a complete failure. Why can studios never manage to put this guy in anything worthwhile? While the man is a perfectly capable actor, these many duds may cement him on the direct-to-video path.
When you look at the Assassin Club poster, there are a ton of recognizable faces. Yet so many of them go completely wasted. Noomi Rapace feels like she was on set for three days, despite her being rather important to the story. Fortunately, Sam Neill is great as always and provides some fun moments as Golding’s handler. His character is absurdly stereotypical, but it works for the role. I could have done with more Neill, as he provides some of the only levity in the entire movie. And anytime someone dies, it’s completely void of any emotion. It just happens, and we move on to the next scene.
I really enjoy Daniela Melchior in most films (especially Ratcatcher 2 in The Suicide Squad), but she isn’t very believable as Sophie. This is strange since she’s just the girlfriend, so you wouldn’t expect her to do much. And she doesn’t. But it’s enough to be bad. And her chemistry with Golding is essentially non-existent. And since one of the main story points is that Morgan is leaving the assassin profession due to his love for her, this is a massive blunder. I kept waiting for them to introduce a twist where Melchior was an assassin and putting up a front. Anything to explain her odd decisions.
Then there are the very strange editing choices. For example, when Morgan goes and visits his girlfriend, it’s shot like he’s stalking a mark. I’m sure it seems like I hated Assassin Club, but I mostly hated how bland it is. While the action is all technically fine, there’s nothing that really makes it pop. No character feels in danger at any moment, which is a huge problem when the story is about assassins trying to kill the main character. I’m sure there weren’t many expecting cinematic gold here, but even 90 minutes of entertainment would have sufficed. Instead, we’re treated to 2 hours of a generic story and even more generic action. As someone who enjoys a bad action movie occasionally, I can’t even add this one to the list because you’ll mostly just be waiting for the ending of this one.
Assassin Club is available DIGITALLY on MAY 16th, 2023 and AVAILABLE TO OWN on JUNE 6th, 2023.