The Killer (2024 remake film): doesn't do justice to the 1989 classic

Remakes are likely my least favorite type of film behind zombie films and even superhero movies. I find them to be the laziest kind of film-making in the world. Are we truly completely out of ideas and are just going to rehash stuff that worked in the past? While this film seemed to have a large budget, it was never released in cinemas as far as I can tell and instead was released on the Peacock streaming service exclusively.

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This film attempts to copy the major plotlines of John Woo's 1989 film that was released out of Hong Kong and was in Cantonese. So I'll give them this at least: Perhaps a remake of a foreign language film is more excusable than remaking something that was already in English to also English. I still don't think it is necessarily a good idea though because just look at Oldboy. The Korean film is, in my opinion, one of the greatest films ever made and the English remake, despite a huge budget and some big names in the cast, is absolute garbage.

Moving on: The Killer is a story of a hitman, or in this case because we have to keep up with the social justices in the world, "hitwoman." Her name is merely "Zee" and she is an unstoppable machine. I have a real problem with what Nerdrotic dubs "girl-bosses" in films because honestly, it doesn't really matter what your hand-to-hand combat skills are if you weigh 130 pounds. You are going to get your clock cleaned by the first man you meet that is double your weight.

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I'm not going to spoil the film too much but not only is "Zee" someone that can Jason Bourne an entire room of armed individuals with little difficulty, but she is also a master of disguise and is always one or two steps ahead of whoever is pursuing her. Throughout the film she interacts with a incorruptible police detective named "Sey" and honestly, I'm not understanding why nobody had regular names in this movie and can't even figure out a connection between this and the original film as far as the naming conventions are concerned.

They made a rather bizarre decision to have the film take place in France so now a great portion of the film is in French so if you don't speak French, and I am guessing most people don't, you now have to deal with subtitles even though this movie is meant to be an English-language remake.

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As is typical with Woo films, most of the plot takes a back seat to interesting camera angles and of course over-the-top car chases and crashes. This part of the film is actually quite interesting as is most of the fighting that takes place. Woo and other Hong Kong directors tend to focus on martial arts action and this part of the film is entertaining even though it is very difficult to take seriously since "Zee" is played by Nathalie Emmanuel, who I do like as an actress but even when she has "bulked up" for a role she tips the scales at a mere 130 lbs and it is simply inconceivable that she would be able to take on a room of hardened criminal men at the same time in hand-to-hand combat. It's not that I need my movies to be hyper-realistic, but this trend right now is something I can do without.

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It is believable that she could be a master of weaponry but when she takes on a room full of full-size men wearing what is essentially a Catwoman suit, I have to call BS on that. Of course the only worthy adversaries that she faces the entire time are also a couple of women and at one point in time the line of "never send boys to do a woman's job" is uttered and that was just cringe as hell. That alone is going to encourage the ire of a lot of YouTubers who are sick and tired of "the message" that is put into films. Thankfully, this trend is dying a quick death and perhaps we can return to normalcy in films before too long.

Should I watch it?

I'm not going to completely bash this film: It does have some good moments in it and the action for the most part is pretty good. The overall story is quite predictable beyond a few things and that is just fine because at the end of the day this is a John Woo movie so it has the plot-twist potential of your average Transformers film. This is expected. The choreography of the fights are solid and when there is action on the screen, which is most of the time, it is pretty entertaining. That being said I think that there isn't anything particularly special about this film so watch this only if you are looking for some sort of mindless entertainment. I regularly refer to movies like this as something I could have on in the background while I clean my house and if you want to see it, you can do that as well. At least once it is over you will have accomplished something you probably should have done anyway.

_{At the moment the only legal way to watch this is to stream it as part of your Peacock subscription}