Killing Gunther: Movie Review

“Saturday Night Live” alum Taran Killam makes his feature film writing and directing debut with the new action-comedy “Killing Gunther”. Don’t let the film’s poster and trailer fool you. Although Arnold Schwarzenegger is being presented as the film’s lead, the iconic star has only about ten minutes of actual screen time.

“Killing Gunther” centers on Blake (Killam), a hitman who wants to be the very best in the world.  Unfortunately, Gunther (Schwarzenegger) is already the number one assassin.  Not happy with coming in second place, Gunther recruits a group of professional killers to help him take out Gunther.  Blake also hired a film crew to make a documentary out of the planned assassination.

Killam cast “SNL” members Bobby Moynihan and Paul Brittain as part of his team, as well as Hannah Simone, Allison Tolman, Arron Yoo, Ryan Gaul, and Amir Talai. The cast is definitely a talented group, but they aren’t given any good material to work with. “Killing Gunther” is a total mess.  I could forgive the uninspired bursts of action, if the comedy elements delivered some laughs, but they don’t.  Moynihan does the best he can with what he is given. The comedic actor always seems naturally funny, but here everything feels forced.

Schwarzenegger, has been in plenty of bad movies, but this could quite possibly be his worst. Lucky for him, he probably spent just a couple of days at most in front of the camera and “Killing Gunther” will quickly be forgotten.

By: Marc Ferman