Time: 126 Minutes
Cast:
Nathalie Emmanuel as Zee
Omar Sy as Sey
Sam Worthington as Finn
Diana Silvers as Jenn Clark
Saïd Taghmaoui as Prince Majeb Bin Faheem
Eric Cantona as Jules Gobert
Director: John Woo

The idea of remaking John Woo’s classic action crime thriller The Killer isn’t exactly appealing to many people. However, the fact that Woo himself would be directing the remake had me curious at the very least. As expected, it doesn’t come anywhere close to being on the level of the original, but it was still enjoyable. 

The Killer (2024) is at its core a generic, but competent and simple action flick. The plot does have some similarities to the first Woo Killer movie (there is an assassin, a cop and a blind singer, and the setup is roughly the same), but it goes in different directions. While it is a worse movie and the plot isn’t as good, you get the sense that it’s not trying that hard to be a straight up remake, and that helped the movie honestly. It’s different enough and messes around with its material to the point that it works as its own movie. I liked how they shifted the setting to France, and the slight changes to the characters and relationships, and even had different thematic conclusions by the end. It is overall a more straightforward and less bleak movie with a good energy throughout and also benefits from a light tone. For the first half it’s nothing special, very standard and only coming alive at the action scenes. In the second half though, it does pick up a bit more. 

Nathalie Emmanuel is great in the lead role of the assassin, convincing in both the action and the drama. Omar Sy is also really good, the two have really strong chemistry together and are enjoyable to watch. Sam Worthington plays the main villain with a very questionable and shaky Irish accent, which did make him somewhat entertaining to watch. 

The main reason I was interested in the movie was the fact that it is directed by John Woo. It isn’t on the level of his past work. This movie was made straight for streaming on Peacock, and unfortunately it looks like it. The locations and visuals are pretty flat and the colour grading isn’t interesting. That being said, it mixed in a lot of stuff that you’d typically enjoy from Woo’s other movies, especially with the action. While some action scenes stand out more than others (and obviously don’t reach the heights of his other better action movies), it’s fun, with slow motion, great camera movements, and stylised editing. 

The Killer (2024) isn’t nearly as good as John Woo’s original, but his remake is still an entertaining and stylistic action thriller, with good performances, and solid set pieces. If you haven’t seen the original film, I would recommend watching that instead, but the remake is still pretty fun. Also, if you were anticipating John Woo’s comeback and were disappointed in Silent Night, 2024’s The Killer should be more along the lines of what you were expecting.