In a Nutshell

Under the leadership of Blake (Taran Killam) a group of eccentric killers for hire comes together to kill the infamous Gunther (Arnold Schwarzenegger), the best hitman in the world. Aiming to take his spot in the limelight Blake hires (at a gunpoint) two filmmakers to document the group’s movements and ultimately the act itself. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5689068/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Great Cast/Poor Movie

Taran Killam has managed to gather together a talented array of comedy-seasoned actors for his directorial debut, the Arnold Schwarzenegger backed action comedy, Killing Gunther. The cast includes Allison Tolman (the wonderful Molly Solverson in the first season of Fargo), Cobie Smulders (Robin Scherbatsky in How I Met Your Mother), Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live regular for over a decade) and Hannah Simone (Cece in New Girl).

For around six years Killam was part of SNL’s core cast during which time he proved to be not only the master of impressions (and other things… his version of Robyn’s Call Your Girlfriend video, shot at 4.30am in a tiny SNL writers room, has had over one million views now) but also a pure comedy genius. Who doesn’t want to join his sloppy swish Mokiki dance, roaming the streets of New York?

Mockumentary style

Killing Gunther is in its majority a mockumentary and, however different they are, it is hard not to draw comparisons with What We Do In The Shadows, 2014 production from Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) and Taika Waititi who directed the side-splittingly funny and heart-breaking Hunt for the Wilder people.

Their New Zealand comedy-horror cleverly played with the genre as well as allowed it enough space to breathe, it was an instant classic. With Killam’s film, the mockumentary layer seems to be just a gimmick introduced as smoke and mirrors, deflecting the eye from obvious mishaps in the plot, style overdose (reality TV meets mockumentary meets rom-com meets action meets…) and formulaic production.

Seems like only Arnie had fun

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fans will be disappointed as they won’t see enough of him in the picture (despite his face being the main marketing pull) but they might be pleased with scenes in which the star clearly had fun with the often-used juxtapositions. Arnie is a big softie. Arnie growing vegetables with elderly. Arnie in lederhosen… or did I dream that?

The very few funny moments in Killing Gunther don’t make up for a protracted viewing with no real action in it, which is hard to feel invested in, to the point of not caring about who lives and who dies. In his usual style, Arnold Schwarzenegger appears last minute to save the day but that ship has sailed around 21 minutes into the film.

Verdict

Despite such great credentials and cast, Killing Gunther’s take on the genre does not deliver. The plot is sluggishly pushed forward by random encounters with the elusive Gunther and the characters are beyond pastiche wafer-thin. We get the idea Killam was going for but it just doesn’t land.