A criminally unfunny mockumentary.
Killing Gunther is now available on ULTRA VOD. It releases in select theaters and On Demand October 20.
On paper, Killing Gunther has all that it needs in order to be a successful comedy. Featuring a lineup of talented stars including Bobby Moynihan, Hannah Simone, Allison Tolman, Cobie Smulders, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger in the titular role, it has the kind of on screen ensemble that you’d expect from one of the best comedies of the year. Unfortunately, Killing Gunther just doesn’t bring any of those elements together in a cohesive or entertaining way.
Coming from the mind of SNL veteran Taran Killam -- who’s making his directorial debut here -- Killing Gunther attempts to offer a unique take on the cliched hitman industry that’s already been so overdone in film. But whereas other movies usually imagine their hitmen characters as being overly professional, ruthless, and sometimes very stylish, Killing Gunther’s lineup of killers are, instead, just as casual and prone to making mistakes as everyday people are.
The premise is simple: led by Killam’s Blake, the film follows its lead crew of killers as they band together to try and kill the most dangerous and accomplished hitman that the world has ever seen, who’s widely known only as “Gunther.” And in order to keep them from becoming indistinguishable, the film reveals that each of the hitmen have their own different areas of expertise when it comes to killing, like Moynihan’s Donnie being an explosives expert, Simone’s Sanaa being known for her marksman skills, or Aaron Yoo’s Yong preferring to kill his enemies with poison.
It doesn’t take long, before we learn that some of the members are targeting Gunther because of some personal vendettas they have against them, while the rest are simply interested in killing him in the hopes of bettering their respective hitmen reputations. Blake has even hired an unexpecting documentary crew to film the whole ordeal, so there will be indisputable proof of who it was that killed Gunther.
It becomes clear very quickly, though, that killing him won’t be as easy as many of them had hoped, as the mysterious veteran hitman thwarts multiple assassination attempts, and is even able to take down some members of the crew along the way. While this might be a believable plot wrinkle for a film with this kind of a meta, bizarre premise, Killing Gunther never quite manages to explain or set up just how Gunther pulls off some of the tricks he does, most of which are too outlandish for their own good.
It doesn’t help either that, despite each of the members possessing their own unique skills at killing, none of them ever grow out of their initial stereotypical archetypes. Killam takes Killing Gunther’s enjoyably off-kilter premise and fills in the rest of its details and characters with underwhelmingly cliched motivations and plot beats. His character, Blake, is the least exciting member of the group from the very get-go, and the film’s superfluous and recycled subplot involving he and his retired-assassin ex-girlfriend, Lisa (Smulders), is given more attention than it has any right to.
But in the end, Killing Gunther’s biggest sin is that it just isn’t very funny. The twists are predictable, and the jokes are often played with a laziness that’s forgivable at first, but grows increasingly more frustrating. And for those who might be going into Killing Gunther hoping to at least see Schwarzenegger cheesing it up as he wrecks Blake and his crew’s plans, they’ll likely be disappointed by the action icon’s shockingly low amount of actual screentime.
The film’s found footage, mockumentary style very rarely adds anything stylistically or comedically substantial, and more often than not just feels like an unnecessary distraction from the actual plot. So while the chemistry between the talented cast members can be sporadically infectious to watch -- as it’s clear that Killam and Co. must have had a ridiculously fun time making Killing Gunther -- it’s just a shame that the apparent fun on set wasn’t translated to the actual film in any consistent or tangible way.
The Verdict
Killing Gunther is an astonishingly unfunny film considering the level of sheer comedic talent involved in it. Its lack of energy or character development keeps the film from ever finding its groove, and in case that wasn’t already disappointing enough, Killing Gunther doesn’t even manage to deliver enough of Arnold Schwarzenegger to justify any fans of the action star wasting their time on it.
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