Dinner with an Assassin is a low budget, yet well-scripted, acted and choreographed action movie that strikes a rare balance between human drama with fully-functional characters and kinetic martial arts and gunplay. It’s the second feature film from writer/director Bobby Guions who proves to be quite adept at handling a conventional premise with style and imagination. Yet what he does best is to roll everything up into a tightly-wound and slow-burning narrative that threatens to burst from the tension at any moment and finally does in a series of finely-executed plot twists and action sequences.
The story is simple and mostly takes place in and around a restaurant. Therein lies its success as Guions is able to focus his attention on building high-tension relationships and action without non-essential distractions. A hired assassin named Mark (John Jet) falls for a woman while he’s staking out a mission at a restaurant. But just as he lets down his guard to make contact with her, he steps into a volatile situation as he’s spotted by professional killers hired to kill him. Rather than immediately break out the guns and stabbing weapons, the killers play a waiting game to take him out without causing a ruckus or drawing unwanted attention. Realizing that he’s just put himself, and now this unsuspecting woman into harm’s way, Mark abandons his mission and begins to look for a way to get them both out alive.
One of the biggest problems with low budget action films is poor casting of so-called “actors.” This is not the case with Dinner with as Assassin. Guions has assembled a first-rate leading cast of unknowns and this really helps to sell a story with a lot of emotional turmoil throughout. In the lead is John Jet as Mark, a conscientious assassin for hire who regularly works for one contractor, contacted only by phone to rid the city of various lowlife criminals. Weary of killing, he dreams of saving enough money to put this life behind him. Jet has got the looks, the charisma and the moves to be Hollywood’s next action star should he get the opportunity. In addition to breaking out some impressive martial arts moves in the film’s second half, he also juggles complex relations with several characters.
First there is Floyd, a police officer and Mark’s best friend. But Floyd doesn’t know that Mark is an assassin and it becomes a catalyst for tension between the two early on when Floyd spots a gun on a disguised man, who turns out to be Mark. The ensuing confrontation will come back to haunt them both. As Floyd, Ray Arroyo breaks stereotype to play a police officer traumatized by having a gun put to his head. His pain and eventual shock at discovering who the gun bearer was is real. This revelation that threatens to destroy their relationship is all the more bittersweet as it unfolds with Mark desperately seeking to protect his friend after a failed attempt to use him to get past the killers. Mark pays a high price for his deceptions.
Jennifer Brown is Shaunda, a woman Mark spies by chance while sniping a target. While staking out a restaurant for his next mission, he sees her again inside the restaurant. Intrigued and distracted by her presence, Mark breaks his own rulebook to meet her while waiting for his target to arrive. There is a lot of standard dialogue between Shaunda and Mark as they meet, flirt and come to know each other over the course of a rather short period of time. The main interest here isn’t so much their repartee, but the strain Mark is under to keep her safe without letting her know what’s really going on. Brown is competent in what appears like a conventional girl-in-distress role.
The lead villain is Vicious, played to perfection by James A. Lee. He’s joined by Galway McCullough as his little brother Seth. The two seem to be vying for a “Charismatic Villain of the Year” award. Lee does this through an understated performance as the suave and professional leader, while McCullough, a theater actor with stage-fighting experience, hams it up as a less civil, sneering hothead barely held in check by his disapproving brother. The two nearly kill each other before they get to their target. Their development helps to balance out the rest of the villains who remain peripheral or appear out of nowhere only to be killed.
The action choreography of Eric Blaze is way above average for your typical American low-budget movie. Quality martial arts action takes place in the second half of the film and is quite plentiful and varied. All of the screen fighters including John Jet exceed standards. With Jet, dual frying pans become blunt weapons, thrown knives are kicked back at their owner and as many as three attackers are juggled at once through a combination of deflections, slick knife handling and kicks. The main fights see Jet taking on McCullough on the restaurant’s roof and Jet battling a samurai sword-wielding Lee. But the best encounter is between Jet and an attacker who shall remain nameless so as not to spoil a plot twist. After being disarmed, the attacker breaks out into what looks like Snake Fist kung fu. This is a terrific and unexpected surprise to see a traditional form where it probably doesn’t belong. It’s a gamble that pays off thanks to its excellent execution.
Less successfully executed is the gunplay. The hardware and handling of it is fine, but the use of budget CGI effects in place of squibs and other live effects cheapens the look of the scenes they appear in. The throwing knives are also obviously digitally painted in. These are relatively minor gripes, however, that could have been easily resolved with more funding.
Dinner with as Assassin is a fine example of how to turn a modest production into an engaging nail-biter where a simple face-off between assassins becomes significantly more involved. It starts out a little slow, but tight direction and scripting pays off in the end with polished martial arts action and a wicked ending.
by Mark Pollard- http://www.FranklinCorrea.com Franklin Correa
