King of Killers has Alain Moussi as Garan, family man by day, contract killer by night. Unfortunately his two worlds collide one evening when he's pulling a job, and his wife just happens to be in the same area and dies after she catches some strays. A year later, as Moussi tries to pick up the pieces, he's approached by Gianni Capaldi, who makes him an offer he can't refuse: come to Tokyo to kill the mysterious Drakos, aka King of Killers, aka Frank Grillo. We say he can't refuse, because a la James Ryan's kickboxing association in Kickboxer 5, if you refuse, you die. Anyway, Drakos has the killers attack him one at a time in his booby-trapped maze, but Moussi thinks that's a bad deal, so he and the other killers go in as a team instead. Will they make it out alive?
Ty and I weren't all that enamored with this, and I think the reason is that cover looked so sweet and carried so much promise. Yes, it had it moments, which we appreciated, but there were also some dead spots, which is something a film like this can't afford to have. The biggest issue though was the whole premise. One, the greatest assassin ever doesn't just take on other assassins one on one, which is what we'd want, he creates this whole booby-trapped space so he has a massive advantage. It was a plot hole so massive that Moussi had to call it out. If your characters are calling out your plot holes, maybe the story should be rewritten. The other thing was the James Ryan kickboxing association construct. "If you don't want to kill Grillo, you're dead." Wait, why? These are assassins, shouldn't the job be enough of an enticement? And why do they need to be killed if they don't want to participate? All that said, we did have some nice action sequences, Moussi brings it, Grillo is great as the baddie, and the supporting cast, including Capaldi, Stephen Dorff, and personal favorite George "Rush" St-Pierre, all help elevate the proceedings; plus we're in an out in 90 minutes, which isn't bad. Sure, it's not bad for a time killer, but that cover and that cast told us this could be something more than a time killer, and that's where the disappointment comes in.
This is now three films on the site for Alain Moussi, the other two being his two Kickboxer reboots, and like those films, Moussi brings it with some fantastic scenes. There's no reason why he shouldn't be the next Scott Adkins, the talent and screen presence are there. The problem is, when I look at his IMDb bio, I don't see a lot, especially a lot that we can do here on the site. If he had been born in the late 50s/early 60s, he'd have had his own DTV franchise in the 90s, something as iconic as Bloodfist or China O'Brien or Gary Daniels's PM three Rs, and to some extent we can say his Kickboxer reboots are that, but as good as they are, they aren't as iconic as those other things I listed. The first one wasn't bad, but the second one was bloated and had too many moments where it was sauteed in wrong sauce. And I think that's the problem here, while it wasn't bloated, too much of it was sauteed in wrong sauce. Looking at a film that did this idea right, Accident Man, it let Adkins cook more than this lets Moussi, and the supporting cast was used better. What if instead of the booby-trapped/forced to fight scenario, they had Moussi fighting different assassins to make his way to Grillo? Each scene building on the first, it could've been closer to that classic I'm talking about.
We're also at three films for Frank Grillo, but unlike Moussi, we have an addition three films in the can that I could review of his, plus he has a ton of stuff in his back catalog that we could review. The problem is, a lot of that stuff doesn't look like stuff I want to review, and I don't know that Grillo is at the point on the site where I'd just be reviewing a movie because he's in it. With that in mind, I looked back at some names who grew into that level. People like Dolph or Don "The Dragon" Wilson were at that level before I started the site, but names like Gary Daniels, Scott Adkins, and Michael Jai White grew into that, and I think what got them there were some amazingly iconic films. Bloodmoon for Daniels, plus the three Rs of PM; Avengement for Adkins, plus the Universal Soldier sequel; Blood and Bone and Black Dynamite for White. Boss Level wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as any of those, and other than Avengement, I don't know how much modern DTV is making stuff at the level of those other films anymore, so he may not even get his chance to make something that iconic. On the other hand, while I may not be watching a film just because it has Grillo, I am more likely to watch it if it has him in it, so that helps, and he does elevate this film a bit just by his presence, which is always a good thing.
So who is the most-tagged member of the cast? That's right, Stephen Dorff, who's in his seventh film on the site. On the all-time Stephen/Steven/Steve list, that puts him fourth, behind Steven Seagal's 39, Steve James's 12, and Stone Cold Steve Austin's 9. Between the fact that James is no longer with us, and Austin doesn't seem to be making more DTV flicks, Dorff could eventually make his way to second all-time among Stephen/Steven/Steves, which I know everyone is following with bated breath. We don't get a lot of Dorff in this flick, something that's probably to be expected, but what we get is sufficiently Dorff-y to make it work. With how junky the DTV world has gotten in the 2010s and 2020s, Dorff is always a welcomed sight, no matter how much we get of him. Like he says in his old Blu e-cigarettes commercials, "we're all adults here."
Finally, this film uses Julian Sans One font for their credits and location titles. Why does that matter? Because I use that font for the covers and spines of my books. I thought it was just an interesting coincidence, but if you've bought any of my books, and then watched this, you may have recognized it. Is it possible the people making this film read my first novel, Chad in Accounting, which I released in 2020, saw the font on the cover, and were like "that's what we need in our movie!" It's also possible it was one of the ones that came after too, like 2021's A Girl and a Gun, or 2022's Holtman Arms, but not 2023's Don's House in the Mountains or 2024's Nadia and Aidan, because they both came out after. If you're asking "but what about your short action novel, Bainbridge, which also came out in 2023," for that cover I didn't use Julian Sans One, I used Raleway, but who knows, maybe we'll see a film that uses that font, and I can review it and use this paragraph to advertise my books again, right? Speaking of which, the link to my newest book, Nadia and Aidan, is below.
And with that, let's wrap this up. This isn't a horrible 2020s 90-minute DTV time killer, but the cover and cast promised us much more than that. Perhaps there will come a time when we don't need to settle for just "pretty good DTV time killer," when DTV action will get back to the level it once was, but, alas, we're not there now. And for more on mine and Ty's thoughts, check out episode 185 of the podcast.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14057604
And if you haven't yet, check out my newest book, Nadia and Aidan, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!
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