As the overwhelming commercial success and critical acclaim to have greeted the John Wick franchise has shown four times over, star-studded assassination adventures have the potential to win big with both critics and at the box office, but Assassin Club has taken refuge at the complete opposite end of the spectrum.
Despite boasting a decent concept and a stacked cast that features Henry Golding, The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s Daniela Melchior, reliable veteran Sam Neill, ass-kicking extraordinaire Noomi Rapace and plenty more in addition, director Camille Delamarre’s feature has already been circling the drain as one of 2023’s worst-reviewed movies.
Not only does it hold a zero percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, but a 4.9/10 rating on IMDb is very bad for an action-packed caper stuffed full of big names. To be fair, it was released to almost no fanfare whatsoever, so perhaps the people in charge were aware they had a stinker on their hands, which they most certainly do.
After the colossal flop that was Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, we can safely assume that as charming and charismatic as Golding may be, he simply isn’t cut out to be an action hero. In Assassin Club, the premise revolves around a hitman given seven contracts to kill seven rivals dotted across the world, only to discover they’ve all been hired to take him out, too.
There’s an awful lot of potential in that logline alone, but based on the scathing reactions emanating from all corners, the mark was missed significantly.