THE KILLER (2024) - Movie Review

Director: John Woo
Starring: Nathalie Emmanuel, Omar Sy, Sam Worthington, Diana Silvers, Eric Cantona, Saïd Taghmaoui
Genre: Action, Thriller
Writer: Brian Helgeland, Josh Campbell, Matt Stuecken
Runtime: 126 min
Rated: Rated R for strong/bloody violence and language
Buy This Movie: Peacock

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Synopsis:

Legendary action director John Woo, the visionary filmmaker of Face/Off, Mission: Impossible II, Paycheck, Broken Arrow and Hard Boiled returns with a radical reimagining of his 1989 Hong Kong classic, The Killer. From the Oscar® winning producer of Oppenheimer, the kinetic action thriller stars Emmy nominee Nathalie Emmanuel (The Fast Saga, Game of Thrones) as Zee, a mysterious and infamous assassin known, and feared, in the Parisian underworld as the Queen of the Dead. But when, during an assignment from her shadowy mentor and handler (Avatar's Sam Worthington), Zee refuses to kill a blinded young woman (Diana Silvers; Ma, Booksmart) in a Paris nightclub, the decision will disintegrate Zee's alliances, attract the attention of a savvy police investigator (Golden Globe nominee Omar Sy; Jurassic World franchise, Lupin), and plunge her into a sinister criminal conspiracy that will set her on a collision course with her own past.

Review:

Hollywood had been trying for decades to remake John Woo's seminal 1989 action film "The Killer". The first script was penned in 1992 by Walter Hill and David Giler. In 1993, "Top Gun" scribes Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. took another crack at it. In 2007, South Korean filmmaker John H. Lee ("A Moment to Remember", "See Hear Love") was set to direct a remake with Woo himself producing, which would have been shot in 3D. After so many false starts, Woo anounced in 2015 that he would return to Hollywood to direct the American version of "The Killer" with Lupita Nyong'o in the lead role. Even so, the film wouldn't start filming until 2023, with Nyong'o replaced by Nathalie Emmanuel. Sadly, the behind-the scenes drama is actually more interesting than the remake itself.

To call it a remake is a bit inexact. Structurally it's a reimagining of the original film. The gender-swapped hitman (Emmanuel) still has a conscience, the blind singer (Diana Silvers) still needs protecting, and once again a bond develops between the straight-arrow cop (Omar Sy) and the killer. Everything else, however, is completely different, and not entirely for the better. It feels more lighthearted, with the new Paris setting adding a hint of mellow elegance and jazzy romanticism, but Woo fans will probably miss the original's Hong Kong edginess and intensity. Still, it's a handsome production, thanks to the production design by two-time Oscar nominee Aline Bonetto ("Amelie", "A Very Long Engagement"), while the delightful score by Marco Beltrami helps give the film a certain operatic quality.

Emmanuel put in the work to reinvent herself as an action lead, and she's easily the best part of the cast. Both her and Sy have an easygoing charm that helps carry the film, but I have to say one of the biggest surprises for me was how much fun Sam Worthington is having playing the villain. It's not like the character is terribly complex, but Worthington relishes every line of dialogue. I honestly didn't think he had it in him to play such a captivating bad guy. The convoluted plot, however, gets exhausting after a while, despite a few interesting touches. There are double crosses upon double crosses, and after a while you'll stop caring who double crosses who. In a way that's part of the John Woo style of operatic drama, but it also starts to drag in the middle under the weight of too much exposition and heavy-handed dialogue.

Thankfully, when the action kicks in, Woo proves he's still got it. All the elements of his signature style make an apperance, including bikes, doves, dual pistols, catholic symbolism, and the slow-motion ballet of bullet-dodging dives & rolls. All of it is elegantly photographed and rhythmically edited by Oscar winners Mauro Fiore ("Avatar", "The Equalizer") and Zach Staenberg ("The Matrix"). Violence has never looked more graceful. And I can't praise the film's abundant use of blood squibs enough. I've quite had it with the fake-looking digital blood in action films. Please, Hollywood, learn from the master and kick CGI to the curb.

If you're a fan of the original film, you're probably going to hate the remake, but I feel you should give it a try, nonetheless. It's a fun time, not a great movie, and a completely different beast from Woo's 1989 classic. At times it feels more like a Luc Besson production, but there's still plenty of Woo's style to enjoy and despite its shortcomings, I had a good time watching it, which is not something that happens often these days.

SCORE: 7/10