True Memoirs of an International Assassin

Sam Larson is a mild-mannered accountant and first-time author whose novel about a globe-trotting hired killer, written under the pen name Mason Carver, is released by his publisher as a genuine memoir rather than fiction. The book becomes a hit, and its supposed author is taken at face value by intelligence agencies, journalists and criminal organizations alike. Sam is abducted, moved out of the country and drawn into a real murder plot, forcing the timid writer to act like the assassin he invented in order to stay alive. The premise places an ordinary man inside the violent world he only imagined, with the added complication that people around him believe he genuinely belongs there.

The film is an action comedy directed by Jeff Wadlow, who wrote the screenplay with Jeff Morris and had previously made Cry_Wolf, Never Back Down and Kick-Ass 2; it is the fourth of the nine features he directed listed here. Kevin James leads the cast as Sam and as his fictional alter ego, alongside Kim Coates, Maurice Compte, Zulay Henao, Andrew Howard and Ron Rifkin, with 39 credited cast members and 85 credited crew.

Released in November 2016 and running 98 minutes, it was produced in the United States by Broken Road Productions and PalmStar Media on a reported budget of 40 million dollars. It sits at 5.9 out of 10 on IMDb from around 26,000 votes and 5.8 out of 10 on TMDB from 867 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 3.8 out of 10 from nine reviews, so critics judged it more harshly than audiences did.