The Killer

I enjoy a good straigh forward action movie but this was just complete nonsense. When you have a movie with such a dumb plot you need lots of good action to keep the audience from thinking about the stupid plot too much. This movie barely has any action and the action it has is mediocre at best. The acting is also mediocre at best. I liked the main actress, she had a good style to her and the black cop as well. The few scenes they had together where some of the best. This definitely had potential, there is some great camera work and stuns here and there but is just too little to keep your entretain.

I don't know how many action clichés John Woo made and then piled up during his carrier, but I guess a lot. This picture is really like mocking himself. Probably, rather than maybe, he is. Well, it is a remake of his own film, once considered pioneer of modern action movies, but it does nothing original at all. Rather, it delivers basically the same but with much less intensity, commitment and flair. The soul of the original is absent. There is no fire in it, just ember - to say the least. The characters are good but apparently most of them are restricted, blocked even, to show raw emotions (with the exception of Cantona). It is a weak remake, as they usually are.

I realise that John Woo is an iconic director, mainly because of his run of funky HK triad gunslinger movies, but whoever put this remake together skimped on the screenwriting, and the script. The direction is ok, but with the nagging feeling that the hourly rate there was also well shy of inspirational.

Every cliched character and trite line of dialogue feels disconnected, existing in isolation, awaiting their brief memetime on Tik Tok and Youtube.

Even the action felt kinda perfunctory, like a cheap sequel filmed in a hurry by an inferior production crew, with no sense of pride in their accomplishments. "Two more flash-cut car chases, an MMA ruck in a public space, a slow-mo bullet time shootout, and we're done, chaps".

What it resembles, more than anything, is a low-budget 80s Eurocrime actioner, with a mismatched Euro-cast, and a script straight out of Babelfish, tarted up in post to look vaguely modern. Unfortunately, it ends up looking like a badly animated storyboard.

Let me beging by saying I love John Woo, Omar Sy, and Nathalie emmanuel, but this movie doesn't go anywhere, do anything, or offer up anything in the way of real entertainment aside from the good action sequences that stitch the diolgue sections together. In fact were it not for these three actors the movie would be immeasurably worse. I'll try to be conciese here.

The plot is simply ridiculous. Who decided to make a movie on a story so preposterous? Just imagine how good this movie might have been if the person creating and detailing the plot had an imagination, a lick of common sense, or a brain to create a proper conept. I'll not go into detail but suffice to say the story isn't worthy of any of the talent enlisted in the movie, nor does it conjure up the slightest modicum of interest, intrigue or investment in emotion.

The actors do a good job with the meterial... such as it is, but nothing can rescue this plot from the underhand vice of creativity that is lacking. Sam worthington is a very capable actor; I like him, and in spite of his relegation to mostly lower profile movie categories in the past few years, his talent nevertheless persists. Here he's cast as an Irishman, and I'm not even sure if he's supposed to be Northern or Southern but not only is his accent is terrible, but the requirement to have him play an Irish national at all is mind boggling. It has no relevance to the proceedings and only makes sense if confusing the audience with what he's actually saying is by design. In his first scene I wondered if he was speaking turkish, I kid you not! I could not understand a word he was saying.

Woo does a good job with the action sequences and to be fair, as an action flick and in dipicting excitement and intensity in general, especially the relevant places, it does well. The shots are great, the actors do well with the sequences, and movie comes alive considerably, but there isn't anything pinning this together except a stupid story that lulls atrociously outside these spaces where Woo's influence isn't primarily on display. "Between the panels" It's just rubbish.

Shame really as I had high hopes for this one. Yes they should have had a better plot, writers etc, but this is where we are and unfortunately as I've said, as an entertainment piece there is little on offer.

There are some good points though, Emmanuel is delectable in much of the attire she dons and indeed there are some nice shots in the movie which can be appreciated outside of the project as a whole, hence my 5/10

Still, that said, watching it is a not much more than a waste of time.

John Woo's "The Killer" 2024 had been highly anticipated by action movie enthusiasts and fans of the director's previous works. However, upon watching it, one can't help but feel a sense of disappointment. This film falls short on several fronts.

First and foremost, the plot was unimaginative and predictable after the first main action scene. It seems as if the filmmakers were trying to be overly complex in an attempt to create a deep and engaging narrative. Instead, it results in a jumbled mess that leaves the audience uninterested. There are too many subplots and twists that don't add much value to the overall story. For instance, a side story involving a character's personal vendetta takes up a significant amount of screen time but fails to contribute meaningfully to the main plot.

The character development is also lacking. The protagonist, who is supposed to be a complex and intriguing anti-hero, comes across as one-dimensional. We don't get a sense of her motivations or inner conflicts beyond the surface-level action. The supporting characters are equally underdeveloped, with little to no backstory or personality. This makes it difficult for the audience to connect with or care about any of the characters.

Another major issue is the action sequences. While John Woo is known for his stylish and intense action scenes, in "The Killer" 2024, they seem repetitive and lack the innovation and excitement of his earlier works. The gunfights and choreographed fights are predictable and don't offer any new or fresh elements. It feels like we've seen these same types of action scenes countless times before. Pigeons, doves, churches etc.

The pacing of the film is off as well. There are long stretches where not much happens, and then suddenly there's an explosion of action that feels rushed. This uneven pacing makes it hard for the audience to stay engaged throughout the movie. A woman of 5.7 135lb beating a 6 foot 220lbs man in unarmed combat is still unbelievable.

Furthermore, the cinematography, which is usually a highlight in Woo's films, is unimpressive in this one. The lighting and color palette don't create the mood and atmosphere that one would expect from a John Woo movie.

In conclusion, "The Killer" 2024 is a letdown. With its boring and predictable plot, underdeveloped characters, repetitive action sequences, off pacing, and lackluster cinematography, it fails to live up to the expectations set by John Woo's previous masterpieces. It's a movie that leaves the audience longing for the director's past glory days and wondering what went wrong.