Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Bangkok and on a plane going from Bangkok to San Francisco, the action film “Fight or Flight” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Asians and black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A disgraced former Secret Service agent, who is recruited to track down an elusive computer hacker on a plane, gets into unexpected entanglements along the way when he finds out that several assassins on the plane want to kill him.
Culture Audience: “Fight or Flight” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Josh Hartnett and intentionally goofy action movies.
Pictured in front: Katee Sackhoff and Julian Kostov in “Fight or Flight” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)
“Fight or Flight” skillfully balances action and comedy and leans gleefully into absurdist tendencies. The movie doesn’t take itself seriously and has a protagonist with realistic flaws. It’s also refreshing to see an action movie based on an original screenplay where the main character could be just as unhinged as his opponents.
Directed by James Madigan, “Fight or Flight” was written by Brooks McLaren and D. J. Cotrona. Lucas Reyes (played by Josh Hartnett) is a disgraced former Secret Service agent, who spends his days getting drunk and gambling in Bangkok. He’s recruited by Katherine Brunt (played by Katee Sackhoff ), a no-nonsense leader of a secretive U.S. government agency, to track down and apprehend an elusive computer hacker terrorist named Ghost, who is believed to be going on a plane flight from Bangkok to San Francisco. (“Fight or Flight” was actually filmed in Hungary.)
Lucas gets this assignment because the person who originally had this mission becomes unavailable, and the government agency needs someone to board this plane. Katherine (who also happens to be an ex-lover of Lucas) keeps track of what’s going on in a control room with her trusted colleague Aaron Hunter (played by Julian Kostov), who gives advice on strategy.
Lucas reluctantly boards the plane without knowing what Ghost looks like except for being told that Ghost should be bleeding from a recent gunshot wound. Lucas soon finds out that many of the passengers on the plane are assassins who have been assigned to kill him and Ghost. What follows is a series of wild fight scenes before, during and after the plane takes off.
A flight attendant named Isha Mandhal (played by Charithra Chandran) becomes an unexpected ally to Lucas. Other memorable characters on the plane include a talkative assassin named Chayenne (played by Marko Zaror) and a martial arts expert named Master Lian (played by JuJu Chan Szeto), who is on the plane with some of her students.
“Fight or Flight” is boisterous, but to its detriment, it’s often repetitive in the basic concept joke of a plane full of assassins. However, the amusing parts of the movie make it watchable for viewers who can tolerate seeing over-the-top stunt fighting on screen. Hartnett performs his role with gusto and with charismatic comedic timing. And it should come as no surprise that the movie ends with the possibility of a sequel.
Vertical released “Fight or Flight” in U.S. cinemas on May 9, 2025. The movie was released in Germany on December 27, 2024. “Fight or Flight” will be released on digital and VOD on June 17, 2024.
Some language in French and Hungarian with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in various European countries, the action film “The Killer’s Game” (based on the 1997 book of the same name) features a racially diverse group of people (white, black, Asian, Latin) who are assassins or middle-class, working-class and wealthy people.
Culture Clash: After being diagnosed with a terminal illness, a longtime assassin puts a hit out on his life so his girlfriend can collect life insurance money, but when he finds out the diagnosis was a mistake, he tries to stop his own assassination.
Culture Audience: “The Killer’s Game” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the book on which the move was based, and mindless action flicks.
Pom Klementieff in “The Killer’s Game” (Photo by Csaba Aknay/Lionsgate)
Outdated, crass and moronic, “The Killer’s Game” is overstuffed with hollow characters, stupid dialogue and terrible performances. This annoying action flick (about an assassin who tries to stop his own assassination) is a flop in every way. It’s not even the type of idiotic and predictable action flick where at least the acting and fight scenes are entertaining to watch. It’s just a constant display of loudness, crudely choreographed violence and a poorly conceived plot that gets worse as it goes along.
Directed by J.J. Perry, “The Killer’s Game” was written by Rand Ravich and James Coyne, who adapted the screenplay from Jay Bonansinga’s 1997 novel of the same name. Everything about “The Killer’s Game” looks like a throwaway film that could’ve been made in the 1990s—from the parade of mostly C-list action stars to the overtly sexist “male gaze” camera shots where there are many close-ups of scantily clad women’s rear ends, but the men in the movie never have to wear skimpy outfits that barely cover their private parts.
“The Killer’s Game” (which takes place in various European countries and was actually filmed in Hungary) begins by showing protagonist Joseph “Joe” Flood in Budapest, Hungary, at a Bolshoi Ballet gala performance. Joe is an American assassin who is undercover at this event as a tuxedo-clad attendee, so he looks like he will blend in with this audience. Joe’s target is Vasily Petrov (Dmitrij Kalacsov), a corrupt official who is a secret crime lord.
This movie is so ridiculous, Joe doesn’t even attempt to do anything to disguise his face in a place that surely has security cameras. Before Joe moves in on his target, he’s on a communication device talking to his mentor/boss Zvi Rabinowitz (played by Ben Kingsley), who tells Joe that he has to do the job but “with no blood,” even though the only weapons Joe has brought are a knife and a gun. Zvi, who is supposed to be a philosophical type of adviser, has some of the worst and corniest lines in the movie.
Joe immediately kills three of Vasily’s bodyguards (played by Iván Orsányi, Aaron Maté and Gergö Hódur)—one by throat slashing, the other two by shooting—so that Joe can get to Vasily, who is sitting in a balcony with a date (played by Mia Rouba M. Kiss) while watching the ballet performance. Joe shoots Vasily in the head and lets Vasily’s date (an innocent bystander) run away. More of Vasily’s goons show up to try and kill Joe by shooting, but he escapes.
The audience has heard the gunshots, and witnesses saw Vasily getting murdered, so the ballet performance is cut short, chaos ensues, and people run out into the streets. One of the people running out of the building is Maize Arnaud (played by Sofia Boutella), the performance’s principal dancer. Joe “rescues” Maize (pronounced “may-zee”), who asks him what his name is. He tells her his name is Joe, but he quickly leaves the crime scene when she briefly takes her eyes off of him.
Joe has been experiencing ringing in his head and blurry vision. On the night of this assassination, he has another one of these episodes. The next day, Joe finds Maize at a dance class that she is teaching. It isn’t made clear where Maize is originally from, but her native language is French, a principal language spoken in France, Belgium and other countries. Maize gives her phone number to Joe. Just like Joe, Maize is living on her own and isn’t close to any family members.
At first, Joe throws away Maize’s phone number. But then, he changes his mind and asks her out to dinner. During this dinner conversation, Joe tells the truth about himself except for what he does for a living. He says he’s in a “retirement planning” job. In reality, he’s an assassin who’s planning to retire. Joe also mentions that when he was 18, he left home to join the U.S. Army and hardly anyone in his home noticed that he was gone.
The relationship between Joe and Maize quickly blossoms as they continue to date each other and fall in love. The movie shows a montage of Joe and Maize on romantic dates, intercut with scenes of Joe globetrotting in various European countries (such as France, Romania, Austria, and Switzerland) to viciously murder people he was hired to kill. During this entire time, Joe keeps his assassin job a secret from Maize.
Joe tells Zvi and Zvi’s vulgar wife Sharon Rabinowitz (played by Alex Kingston) that he’s fallen in love with Maize and wants to retire from being an assassin so that he can settle down with Maize. Sharon proceeds to give Joe unsolicited sex advice. Zvi advises Joe to tell Maize as soon as possible about being an assassin. Zvi says that he told Sharon the truth about his assassin activities early on in their relationship, which Zvi says is one of the reasons why their relationship has lasted so long.
After Joe gets some medical tests done, Joe’s physician Dr. Kagen (played by Raffaello Degruttola) tells him bad news: Joe has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal neurodegenerative illness, and Joe has about three months to live. Joe then decides he’s going to get a life insurance policy for himself and make Maize the sole beneficiary. And in order for Maize to collect the life insurance policy (which would not pay her if Joe dies of natural causes or suicide), Joe secretly orders an assassination of himself.
Joe tells Zvi about this plan and asks Zvi to find someone to murder Joe, but Zvi refuses. Zvi tries and fails to get Joe to change his mind. Joe tells Zvi: “I lived by the sword. I want to die the same way.”
Joe then goes to an assassination broker named Marianna Antoinette (played by Pom Klementieff) and offers her $2 million to find someone to kill him. Marianna is very eager to take this assignment because Joe killed Marianna’s father years ago because her father was an assassin who “transgressed.” Apparently, even among these murderers, there’s a code of “ethics” to follow.
What ensues is an incoherent slog of various assassins being hired by Marianna to kill Joe. She increases the payout to $4 million after Joe tries to call off the assassination when he finds out that he was misdiagnosed (due to a mixup of another patient’s medical records), and he doesn’t have Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after all. None of this is spoiler information because the trailers for “The Killer’s Game” reveal about 90% of the movie’s plot. Marianna has a right-hand man named Max (played by Daniel Bernhardt), a war criminal who does the dirty work of overseeing some of these would-be killers who want this bounty.
You know the rest: over-the-top and unrealistic fights, bloody violence, explosions, car chases. Most of the assassins do not have real personalities and are not much different from disposable video game characters. Somewhat of an exception is an assassin playboy named Creighton Lovedahl (played by Terry Crews), the killer who gets more screen time than the other assassins who are out to get Joe. However, Creighton is nothing but a stereotype who says and does all the usual lunkhead things that you would expect in a horrible movie like “The Killer’s Game.”
Other assassins who clutter up the screen are a South Korean gang leader named Goyang (played by Lee Hoon), who brings four gang members (played by Jeongyeon So, Hyunjeong Han, Seonggu Cho and Cheol-woo Lee) with him to ambush Joe. There are also two buffoons named the Wango Brothers, who are so inconsequential to the story, they don’t last long and they’re not even listed in the film’s end credits. Scottish brothers Angus Mackenzie (played by Scott Adkins) and Rory Mackenzie (played by Drew McIntyre) are another bumbling duo.
Two assassins from England who call themselves the Party Girls work as strippers and are in the movie only so they show their stripper moves then inflict some sadistic violence while in their barely-there stripper clothes. Their names are Ginni (played by Lucy Cork) and Toyna (played by Shaina West)—like gin and tonic—and the movie hints that their drug of choice is cocaine. Emilio “El Botas” Gasevich (played by Marko Zaror) is a dancing assassin. Seriously.
But perhaps the most irritating character in a movie filled with irritating characters is a wannabe assassin named Money (played by George Somner), a talkative dork who looks like he’s seen too episodes of Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Da Ali G Show,” because he seems like he’s a parody of the worst things about the Ali G character. Because Money is Marianna’s cousin, Money gets to tag along with Creighton, who hates having to train this incompetent loser.
All of the acting in “The Killer’s Game” is mediocre or bad, even from Oscar-winning Kingsley, who deserves better than to be in this type of garbage move. Bautista and Boutella (playing a generic girlfriend) are never convincing as a couple who are supposed to be passionately in love with each other. Klementieff is especially stiff with her acting in this movie, which is a disappointment considering the great chemistry that she and Bautista had when they co-starred in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies together. In “The Killer’s Game,” that chemistry doesn’t exist. And neither does anything resembling a good movie.
Lionsgate released “The Killer’s Game” in U.S. cinemas on September 13, 2024. The movie will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on November 19, 2024.
Some language in French, Japanese, German and Russian with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States, France, Japan and Germany, the action film “John Wick: Chapter 4” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Asians and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class, wealthy and criminal underground.
Culture Clash: Notorious mercenary John Wick fights several opponents in various countries, in order to be released from his servitude punishment from the High Table, a council of 12 crime lords who oversee the underworld’s most powerful criminal groups.
Culture Audience: “John Wick: Chapter 4” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “John Wick” franchise, star Keanu Reeves, and action-packed movies that can get very violent.
Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård and Marko Zaror in “John Wick: Chapter 4” (Photo by Murray Close/Lionsgate)
“John Wick: Chapter 4” is the most stunning and stylish-looking of the “John Wick” movies. Elaborate fight scenes are the movie’s biggest assets, but there’s also plenty of suspense, well-placed comedy and a meaningful story of humanity at the heart of this ultra-violent movie. “John Wick: Chapter 4” is an ending chapter of this franchise, but an end-credits scene in the movie hints that the saga will continue in another storyline.
Directed by Chad Stahelski, “John Wick: Chapter 4” was written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch. The movie had its world premiere at the 2023 SXSW Film & TV Festival. It’s an epic movie (with a total running time of 169 minutes) that is filled with adrenalin-pumping action that is never boring but can be overwhelming or offensive for people who have a low tolerance for violence in movies. At this point, most people who want to see a “John Wick” movie already that “John Wick” movies have a lot murders and mayhem. Everyone else should be prepared for ths onslaught.
It’s not necessary to see the previous “John Wick” movies, but it helps give better context to some of the relationships in the movie. The plot of “John Wick: Chapter 4” is fairly simple: Notorious mercenary John Wick (played by Keanu Reeves) fights several opponents in various countries, in order to be released from his servitude punishment from the High Table, a council of 12 crime lords who oversee the underworld’s most powerful criminal groups. The current leader of the table is a ruthless sadist named Marquis (played by Bill Skarsgård), who is based in Paris. Even among these criminals, there are rules and codes of conduct that must be followed.
John’s quest leads him from his native United States to various other countries, including Japan, France and Germany. Some of his allies can turn into enemies, while some of his enemies can turn into allies. The characters he encounters include Winston (played Ian McShane), owner of the Continental Hotel in New York City; Continental Hotel concierge Charon (played by Lance Reddick, who died on March 17, 2023, one week before the release date of “John Wick: Chapter 4”); and Bowery King (played by Laurence Fishburne), leader of the Soup Kitchen, a New York City-based underworld intelligence network that is disguised as a homeless shelter.
In “John Wick: Chapter 4,” John has two hit men who have been hired to kill him: blind assassin Caine (played by Donnie Yen) and bounty hunter Tracker (played by Shamier Anderson), who is accompanied by his loyal German Shepherd. While in Japan, John interacts with Shimazu (played by Hiroyuki Sanada), the manager of the Continental Hotel in Osaka, as well as Shimazu’s daughter Akira (played by Rina Sawayama), who is a high-ranking manager at the hotel. Also in the movie are a Russian mafia princess named Katia (played by Natalia Tena); Chidi (played by Marko Zaror), who is Marquis’ second-in-command henchman; and Harbinger (played by Clancy Brown), who is a high-ranking member of the High Table.
Visually, “John Wick: Chapter 4” is the most vibrant of the “John Wick” movies. Dan Laustsen’s exquisite cinematography has gorgeously rich hues and eye-popping camera angles. Some critics might argue that this movie makes violence took glamorous, but there’s no denying that “John Wick: Chapter 4” is an achievement in visual arts for action films. And let’s be clear: The movie has no ambiguity in rooting for who the “good” characters are.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” takes on many qualities of a comic book come to life, such as the way that word fonts look on screen, how the action scenes are choreographed, and the manner in which some of the villains are portrayed. (And to its detriment, “John Wick: Chapter 4” has very simplistic dialogue, similar to a comic book.) Scott Adkins plays a German crime boss named Killa (the leader of the High Table’s German operations), who is a character that looks like he was inspired by the Kingpin villain in Marvel Comics. Killa is a massive thug who wears a business suit and has gold-plated front teeth. You can imagine how those gold teeth will be used as comic relief in one of the fight scenes.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” certainly has some very cartoonish violence. However, the violence gets much more realistic in the last third of the movie. There’s an unusual and somewhat comedic action sequence involving a long flight of stairs that is sure to be one of the most memorable aspects of “John Wick: Chapter 4.” And the last 15 minutes of the movie just might make some viewers cry. “John Wick: Chapter 4” goes beyond what typical action movies do by not just offering unique fight scenes but also stirring up complex emotions for the main characters in ways that can be unexpected.
Lionsgate will release “John Wick: Chapter 4” in U.S. cinemas on March 24, 2023.
