Assassin Club (2023)

Henry Golding is "Morgan", somewhat reluctantly tasked by his handler "Caldwell" (Sam Neill) with an unique challenge. It seems he is embroiled in a game of death - and there are six other professional hit-people out there all determined to kill him (unless he kills them first). He wants to retire to a settled life with his teacher girlfriend "Sophie" (Daniela Melchior) but when the two of them encounter "Drakos" (Lorenzo Buran) in a public park, he realises that the choice isn't going to be his! The idea isn't bad, but what now ensues is all rather poor, sorry. There is plenty of pace but the delivery has more holes that a Swiss cheese festival. These are supposed to be amongst the most lethal and devious folks alive yet they all find each other with ease; there is way too much sentiment as the drama predictably unfolds and the underlying ownership of the plot is convoluted and really weak. Now had we spent a little longer with Golding in his one and only shower scene, then perhaps that might have redeemed his otherwise really hammy performance, but we don't so it doesn't, and coupled with a frankly terrible effort from the wooden-as-ever Neill and the almost pantomime-menace contribution from Noomi Rapace as the police investigator "Vos" - a woman with quite a secret - we are left with a film that stays defiantly in the realms of a flat-footed and over-scripted television movie. Someone, somewhere, is determined to make Henry Golding a star. Good luck with that - he has all the charisma of a wet beer mat.