The Killer is legendary action filmmaker John Woo’s masterpiece. To be clear, when I say that, I’m of course referring to Woo’s 1989 film called The Killer. His new 2024 movie also called The Killer, which is being promoted as a self-directed remake of his own work, is something different entirely. The new version of The Killer is more of a desperate cry for attention from a director who hasn’t had a hit in years.
Coming thirty-five years after the original, The Killer redux isn’t strictly a remake, either. Charitably, the movie could be called a “re-imagining” of the old story, but what it actually feels like is a watered-down knockoff made with no particular passion, flair, or reason for existing. Almost anyone could have directed this. For much of its duration, the film gives off a strong impression that John Woo probably wishes someone else had.
| Title: | The Killer |
| Year of Release: | 2024 |
| Director: | John Woo |
| Watched On: | Peacock |
The idea of a director remaking his own movie isn’t entirely unprecedented. Cecile B. DeMille made The Ten Commandments in both 1923 and 1956, and Alfred Hitchcock remade his 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much also in 1956 – both to greater success with the larger budgets and bigger stars available to them the second time around. In later decades, Hollywood studios would occasionally lure foreign filmmakers to American soil to helm English-language remakes of their previous hits, as happened with George Sluizer’s The Vanishing (1988 and 1993) or Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On: The Grudge (2002) a.k.a. The Grudge (2004). The latter examples typically met with more mixed results.
The 2024 The Killer is an extremely loose retelling of the broad strokes of the 1989 film’s story, relocating the setting from Hong Kong to Paris. Doing so seems like a sure way to needlessly sow confusion with David Fincher’s Paris-set hitman thriller from last year that was also called The Killer. Because we’re in 2024 and no one can come up with any better ideas, the main character has been regendered from a male lead to a woman, which makes this movie feel as much like a copy of Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita as of The Killer. As if to acknowledge that, Nikita costar Tchéky Karyo even turns up for a small role here.
Nathalie Emmanuel from Game of Thrones and the Fast & Furious franchise plays a mysterious assassin known only as Zee, who, despite her career choice, upholds a code of honor and will only murder people she believes deserve to die. When her handler, Finn (Sam Worthington affecting a pointless Irish accent), orders her to take out a nightclub full of gangsters, the club’s seemingly-innocent singer, Jenn (Diana Silvers), winds up blinded in the crossfire. Upset about the loose end, Finn demands that Zee return to eliminate the witness, but Zee is overcome by guilt and spends the rest of the movie protecting Jenn from rival assassins sent to finish the job for her. All the while, she’s also dogged by a clever detective (Omar Sy from Netflix’s Lupin) on the trail of her employers. Needless to say, these two forces from opposite sides of the law will find themselves teaming up against the greater evil.
Scripted by Brian Helgeland, who was once responsible for great movies like L.A. Confidential and Mystic River, but also a few duds like The Postman and Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, the remake of The Killer is an entirely by-the-numbers affair. The plot is dull and holds zero surprises. Every plot twist is obvious from early on. Competently yet indifferently directed by Woo, the film’s pacing is slack and its 126-minute length feels interminable. Even the action scenes, once Woo’s specialty, are mostly derivative and offer little excitement. The movie doesn’t even begin to come to any life until the big action climax in the last fifteen minutes, long after most of the audience’s attention will have drifted to their smartphones, tablets, or anything else within reach of their couches and recliners at home.
Video Streaming
Obviously undeserving of a theatrical release, The Killer premiered on Peacock streaming this past Friday, August 23rd. On Peacock’s ad-supported tier, the movie is preceded by three minutes of unskippable commercials, but should not be interrupted after it starts.
The film streams in 4K HDR. Despite the softness of the screencaps I was able to grab off my web browser for this article, the 1.85:1 image is very crisp and detailed during actual playback on a proper streaming device. Photographed digitally with no pretense of disguising that fact with film-look filters or artificial grain, the picture is sharp and slick, has strong colors, and no virtually grain or noise at all.
The Dolby Atmos soundtrack has a few moments of deep, booming bass, and gunshots are delivered with a satisfying crack. Height speakers don’t call attention to themselves too often, aside from the sound of doves fluttering overhead in a church alcove.
The Video File Blog 