‘Killing Mary Sue’ VOD Review
Stars: Sierra McCormick, Dermot Mulroney, Katie Killacky, Jake Busey, Martin Kove, French Stewart, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jason Mewes, Maddie Hogan, Kym Whitley | Written and Directed by James Sunshine
Written and directed by James Sunshine and starring Sierra McCormick, alongside more familiar names like Dermot Mulroney and Martin Kove, Killing Mary Sue is a 2025 action-comedy that lands squarely in territory Nerdly has always had a soft spot for: lean, high-concept genre filmmaking that knows exactly what it is and doesn’t waste time pretending otherwise.
The setup is gloriously blunt. Mary Sue is the troubled, party-heavy stepdaughter of a powerful senator whose ongoing scandals are becoming politically inconvenient. His solution? Hire a series of assassins to quietly remove her from the equation. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Mary Sue turns out to be exactly what the title promises: a walking, talking genre cliché who possesses absurd skills she never knew she had. What follows is a steadily escalating parade of hired killers, from lone operators to full squads, retirees dragged back into the game and even international hitmen, all of whom are systematically outmatched by someone who seems physically incapable of missing, getting shot, or even accidentally not killing someone.
This is exactly the kind of scrappy, high-concept genre movie that Tubi has quietly become a home for – and Killing Mary Sue plays directly to that sweet spot. It leans into its own absurdity, commits to the bit, and never once pretends to be anything it isn’t. The film knows its hook, understands the joke baked into its premise, and builds everything around that central idea.
The film leans hard into the “Mary Sue” trope, even defining it up front, and then spends the rest of its runtime gleefully proving the point. Mary Sue treats gunfights like video-game mechanics: auto-aim, perfect dodges, accidental kills that somehow always land, and the absurdity is very much the point. Watching a petite protagonist effortlessly mow through increasingly desperate waves of bulky assassins shouldn’t work, but here it becomes the engine of the film’s entertainment. Every 10–15 minutes brings a new scenario, a new batch of expendable bad guys, and another excuse to escalate the nonsense.
As an action-comedy, the humour is inevitably hit-and-miss (comedy always is), but there’s enough here to keep things lively. The running gag about Mary Sue’s one emotional goal – getting the senator to say “I love you” – is surprisingly effective, especially when he constantly dances around the phrase with near-misses. There are also plenty of knowingly ridiculous details, like her supposed future running a “Russian banana farm” (which, yes, makes about as much sense as it sounds). Some laughs come from the jokes themselves; others from the film’s sheer commitment to its own silliness, which bad-movie aficionados will absolutely appreciate.
Performance-wise, it’s stronger than you might expect. McCormick sells the central role with confidence, while familiar faces like Jake Busey, Jason Mewes and a parade of “oh, I’ve seen that guy before” character actors add a welcome layer of recognition. Technically, Killing Mary Sue is also more polished than many films in this space: sound, lighting and cinematography are clean and functional, and the limited locations (mostly a mansion and a warehouse) are used efficiently. This may not be a big-budget production, but it’s clearly put together with care.
That said, not everything lands. The score is… spectacularly generic – the kind of stock-sounding music that’s so bland it almost becomes entertaining in its own right. The story also embraces simplicity to the point where it can feel overly obvious, with characters frequently spelling things out. And while I’ll avoid spoilers, the ending leans heavily into exposition, delivering information in big chunks rather than letting it unfold naturally. It does reframe the story in an interesting way, but subtle it is not.
Still, for all its quirks, Killing Mary Sue delivers exactly what it promises: a brisk, ridiculous, surprisingly engaging action-comedy that understands its niche and plays directly to it. If you’ve got a soft spot for gloriously daft, straight-to-streaming genre cinema that commits to the concept and rides it all the way to the end, this one’s an easy recommendation.
*** 3/5
Killing Mary Sue is available on digital platforms, including Apple TV and Tubi – in the US – now.
