Better Than Expected
Summary
The Killer 2024 could never live up to the 1989 original, but this is far from a badly made movie, with solid performances and impressive action scenes making this an entertaining if somewhat unremarkable watch.
Plot: When a feared contract killer refuses to murder a young blind woman on the orders of her handler, she finds herself hunted by old colleagues and a determined detective.
Review: I go into mild spoilers in this review, so if you want to go in fresh, read no further.
Like The Crow remake (which I’m maybe going to see later today) nobody was really asking for a redo of John Woo’s classic The Killer, and yet here we are. It didn’t even get a theatrical release which is disappointing and landed on Peacock (or Prime here in Canada). I was still curious to watch the film as it’s hard to be annoyed when a remake is done by the same director as the original film.
Obviously, this would never hold a candle to 1989 movie The Killer starring Chow Yun-fat, but this reboot starring Omar Sy and Nathalie Emmanuel is at least watchable with some nice action set-pieces.
Sy plays the cop Sey with Emmanuel playing the killer Zee and the two are both appealing however, no one in the cast will ever be as charismatic as Chow Yun-fat. Sam Worthington plays the villain Finn who is Zee’s handler at first he seems to be an ally, but eventually his true intensions are revealed. He’s sporting an Oirish accent here which isn’t the worst I’ve heard, and he can come across as suitably menacing if not that memorable a character.
This lacks the tragedy that the original had; the tone is a bit lighter, and the stakes feel less so it’s just a more generic actioner in that respect.
The obvious Woo tropes are firmly in place like pigeons, slow motion and double gunplay as well as an impressive, action-packed finale with decent fight scenes and a few real explosions too. I think if you didn’t like Silent Night then this is more traditional Woo and there’s plenty to enjoy even if it never quite matches the original.
Marco Beltrami provides the score, and it even has an ear worm theme tune which we don’t see much of these days. It works well with the sumptuous visuals and Paris looks amazing too.
Like several Woo films there are some moments which are maybe unintentionally humorous, but that’s always part of the fun.
Overall, The Killer 2024 may not need to exist, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a good time with it; nothing about it lives up to the Chow Yun-fat classic, but there is enough stylish action to keep Woo fans entertained.