In 1989 John Woo released The Killer, and it became an instant classic in Hong Kong cinema. The Killer and Hard Boiled were my introduction to John Woo and his Gun Fu cinema. The way he choreographed his shootouts it was like watching this beautiful bullet-fueled ballet and typically always shot in slow motion. When he came to the US, John Woo was able to find some success in the action genre, delivering hits like Broken Arrow and Face/Off. His career has kind of cooled off, and when they announced that Woo was going to be remaking The Killer, I’ll admit I hated the idea. It’s a movie I don’t feel can really be improved, but with Woo involved, I was still willing to give the film a chance. My concerns were pretty much confirmed when I heard about the casting and I saw this was going to be a straight-to-streaming release. Let me be very blunt; the 1989 version of The Killer is top-tier action, and it is a film that I feel just can’t easily be replicated, nor should it be. Unfortunately Hollywood just wants to reboot and remake everything … Now, bringing back John Woo to helm this film is just about the only thing I feel Universal got right, but at the same time I feel they just didn’t understand what they were doing with this property. This isn’t a film that should be just made for streaming; this is a film that deserves a little reverence. This should have been treated like a tent-pole release with a huge budget and A-list stars, because this could have been something special, but instead we got this forgettable film that has moments of fun, but mostly it falls flat.
The story is relatively simple. Zee (Nathalie Emmanuel) is an assassin hired to eliminate a room filled with targets, and in the process of completing her mission she ends up blinding Jenn (Diana Silvers), a singer. In a moment of pity, she lets the singer live, and this proves to be problematic decision for Zee, since no one was meant to survive. Finn (Sam Worthington) is Zee’s handler and was hired by a crime boss who’s had a large shipment of heroin stolen from him. The men Zee was hired to kill were apparently part of this large drug heist which was valued at $350 million. Then there is Inspector Sey (Omar Sy), who has recently killed a criminal who was connected to the drug heist, and this criminal also has ties to a Saudi prince. Sey discovers his case is connected to Zee, and the two have to reluctantly join forces so they can stay alive and solve his case.
This film shifts the location from Hong Kong to Paris, and for the most part that works for this film. The locations are beautiful, so production-wise we get some eye candy, but let me just say I wasn’t a fan of the look of this film. I understand digital is cheaper than film, but it just made this film look dull and cheap. The film just looks too slick, and the slow-motion gunfights just look so bad, and the digital blood just made it look worse. This is one of those arguments where if you put the two movies side by side, I don’t care which scene from the original you pick, it is going to look better. This just looked like it was a TV series, and it was just frustrating to watch at times.
As for the casting, they did the best they could, but no one really felt right in these roles. In the original there was a romance between the assassin and the blind singer, but here they kept things platonic. This I feel was a bit of a mistake, and it kind of reflects how gender-swapping can impact the story. It just doesn’t make sense in this version of the film why Zee doesn’t just kill the singer. Even when she gives an explanation, it just doesn’t fit, when she’s supposed to be one of the most cold-blooded assassins out there. If they at least added that the singer was pregnant or something along those lines, maybe it would be more convincing, but we get nothing. Then there is Inspector Sey; we just don’t get enough of the potential danger he’s in. They hint that there are dirty cops all around him, but we never really get the impression his life is in any danger. We’re supposed to believe the stakes are so high, but again, we never see it. Then there is Finn; this was another character who doesn’t make much sense. He’s so dangerous and clever, but for most of the film he’s like a glorified errand boy for crime bosses, yet he has his own sexy female assassin squad?
So let’s pretend the plot issues don’t matter. After all this is a John Woo movie; are the action scenes at least awesome? OK, they are a bit all over the place. The little action bits in the first act of the movie are a bit underwhelming. Again it gets into them shooting on digital; they just look so cheap and fake. Now when the film gets to the hospital and we get our first full-on shootout, the movie does come alive, and we get some of that John Woo magic. No, these shootouts are not realistic, but they are bonkers fun. The film needed more of these moments. Then there is the film’s final showdown in the third act. This scene was a blast (pun slightly intended).
When you watch a John Woo film there are just certain things you expect … Slow-motion action sequences, shots of pigeons flying through the air, and mostly just a testosterone thrill ride. This version of The Killer feels watered down and just doesn’t have the energy of the 80s and 90s John Woo action we expect to see. Sure, he’s gotten older, but I know the man still has talent. What’s missing is the right script and budget that he deserves to be able to work with. I doubt audiences will react well to this film when they are used to films like John Wick, even if those films are heavily influenced by early Gun Fu cinema. I hope this isn’t the end for John Woo; I’d love to see him do a gritty detective story and possibly reunite with Chow Yun-Fat (the true master of Gun Fu cinema) again. This was a huge misstep for Universal and Peacock. Is it worth watching? It is entertaining enough to watch, but sadly it is very forgettable. What’s even more tragic that it doesn’t look promising that we’ll ever get a Blu-ray of the 1989 version of The Killer, so this may be all we’ll have unless you’re willing to fork over the dough to get yourself a bootleg.
The Killer is streaming exclusively on Peacock.
