The Killer

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.

The main actress had a kick ass image. The camera simply loves her. But is she a killer?

It just doesn't work. The film cliches start thick and fast and soon go into overdrive. By the end the film is dripping in old camera angles, dull fight scenes and amateur plot lines. It is desperate to be an action film. But it is just a parody of one.

The acting talent is high. And the Director used to be known for blockbusters. But I can't help but feel they have all dropped in the rankings creating this 'straight to VHS' nothing burger.

The story is ridiculous. It literally makes no sense. A whole killing empire brought down for no good reason. All the silent pro killing replaced with amateur battles that are disproportionate to the problem. The solutions just making it worse for no good reason.

This film is bad. Comically bad. By the end you will be questioning whether it is the same John Woo. Or just budget retired one.

Not recommended 💩

Why John this is just not neccesary, this is simply an excuse to put two charismatic actors kicking assess, this is not a neccesary remake my guy, it's just like the original but without the essentially of that film, you should make a remake one of your American Van Damme movies, those are not good

The crow and now this one, stop remaking solid and classic movies please, you people should remade something like Waterworld or the Travolta alien movie, try to improve bad movies instead of remaking good ones, this is not a good remake and its feels forced and weird sometimes, you can do better ok guys.

Hard to believe this is John Woo movie. Perhaps he doesn't care much more about the script and it's all about style and filming and little else. Every cliche is pulled out of movie history, as our hardened killer has mercy on the innocent girl. It was put together to also present the battle of the non non binary lesbians. It's not meant to be a slight on lgbtq people, there was just no reason to have them in there and it is never explained. Some nonsense about the beating of Sam worthington's heart, in his attempt to do an Irish accent.

All the good reviews here are fake. This is a shell of what good films used to be. You seen it all before and just much better done.

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.