Assassin Club

This is one club you won't wanna join.

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The new action-thriller “Assassin Club” (now available for Digital purchase and accessible on Blu-ray and DVD beginning Tuesday, June 6) mostly misses the mark and often shoots blanks.

Henry Golding stars as Morgan, a best-in-the-biz hitman who reports to his handler Caldwell (Sam Neill). Morgan’s looking to get out of the murder-for-hire game as he’s fallen for French schoolteacher Sophie (Daniela Melchior, who’s having a moment right now appearing in two of this summer’s biggest movies “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “Fast X”).

Caldwell offers Morgan one last job before granting him his freedom. He’ll have to take out seven people, but as luck would have it these folks are fellow assassins (including the ferocious Falk played by Noomi Rapace) who’ve also been commissioned to clip Morgan. It’s now up to Morgan to evade capture by Inspector Leon (Jimmy Jean-Louis) and protect innocent Sophie from the deranged Falk.

“Assassin Club” is directed by Luc Besson protégé Camille Delamarre (he previously helmed “District B13” remake “Brick Mansions” and the Ed Skrein-fronted reboot “The Transporter Refueled”) and written by Thomas Dunn. The picture is entirely too long at 111 minutes (it would’ve played better at 90), unnecessarily complicated and contains some mind-bogglingly bad CGI (Why not light an actual fire in a fireplace as opposed to rendering this ridiculousness?).

The only performer who really comes to play is Rapace, who’s entertainingly unhinged here. I haven’t watched Golding’s romantic comedy work (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “Last Christmas”), but have seen him in other action offerings as a supporting player (“The Gentlemen”) and star (“Snake Eyes”). Golding’s certainly a good-looking guy, but between this and “Snake Eyes” I’m not entirely sure he has what it takes to headline movies. Sure, he looks cool leaping out of exploding buildings (which he does frequently in “Assassin Club”), but he lacks the charisma needed to carry an entire enterprise on his shoulders. (James Bond this dude is not.) Neill is saddled with delivering exposition dumps and Melchior is relegated to playing damsel in distress … these talented actors deserve better.

As far as recent hatchet person action flicks go, you’re better off sticking to the masterful “John Wick: Chapter 4” or last week’s so-so but admittedly better “The Mother.” This is one club you won’t wanna join.