The Killer (2023)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  7 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: David Fincher's 'The Killer,' opens with a hired assassin (Michael Fassbender) obsessively repeating the rules he lives his life by, but then he shoots the wrong target and gets home to find his partner's been tortured, so he embarks on a revenge mission that breaks those rules one kill after the the other.
  
  That arc doesn't really take him anywhere significant, as even though it's obvious from the off that his code is just nonsense that he recites to detach himself from the morality of his work, he remains a cold-blooded killer by the end. The thrill just comes from seeing him drop the pretence and putting his meticulous skills to a more personal use.
  
  More than that though, the simple, formulaic story presents an opportunity for Fincher to showcase his expert nous for dark humour and building tension within scenes. There's a great moment where the killer acosts his handler and their assistant for information for example, one magnificently edge-of-your-seat fight scene where he breaks into a house with a dog, and a great conversation between him and a target who knows they're about to die. Plus it's hard to resist smiling at how he justifies his killing, or how he constantly listens to The Smiths to calm his nerves...
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: There's really not much to it, but what it does, it does very well.
  
  VERDICT: 'The Killer,' sees a very simple, formulaic story executed brilliantly by David Fincher.

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