Killing Gunther

One hitman, named Blake, plans to kill the world's current greatest hitman, a mysterious killer named Gunther, who is responsible for numerous audacious kills. Also, Gunther convinced Blake's girlfriend (played by Colbie Smothers) to break up with him and date Gunther for a time. So there's some resentment there.

Blake assembles a team of whatever professionals are willing to take a run at Gunther, and also a documentary camera crew, because when he kills Gunther, he wants there to be proof. Except, of course, things go wrong from the start. Their every attempt at ambush backfires. Gunther is always prepared, and keeps whittling their numbers down as Blake grows increasingly desperate and despondent.

It's supposed to be funny, and there are a couple of parts where that happened. The killer whose father was a famous killer, and is now her #1 superfan. Watching him come running on-screen yelling about what a great shot she just made got a laugh out of me. There's a recurring bit with Blake's mentor that's sort of funny. But the film seems to be trying to mine out laughs out of how badly their attempts to kill Gunther are going - in a kind of Wil E. Coyote hunting the Roadrunner way - and it might have been better to play up their differences in personality and style instead. The film does that occasionally, let's a couple of them just stand and talk for 30 seconds, but it's rare.

Also, I don't know if Gunther's true identity was supposed to be a surprise, but if so, Netflix kind of ruined it when they listed the actor's name in the description, and showed him as the background image. On the plus side, the actor in question has always been willing to lean into humor that plays off his normal on-screen characters, and the movie uses that to some limited effect near the very end.