*not to be confused with David Fincher's thriller with the same name of 2023.
This is John Woo's THE KILLER, his own remake to his famous cult film The Killer from 1989, that premiered (streaming :( on Peacock on Aug. 23 2024.
it's woke but is more than that.
It is John Woo's French film, it's an homage to Le Samourai (1967) even more than the original Killer was. In the circumstance of recent Alain Delon's demise, this works more nostalgic than intended. Shot in Paris of no limits A budget and in touristic spots, plus the church from the original and the pigeons TM. And a goldfish. A samurai (!) sword. A black hat. And a crossword pun. And bikers on relanti. In flames. Woo-ish.
Woo will be 78 this September (22), so he's not getting any younger. His influences on the action cinema were in the '90's. That's why they called him overseas, after hardboiled (1992). He started with Hard Target (soft spot as I was a publicist on it, back in 1994's Media Pro Pictures distribution), moved on to Broken Arrow and hit the mark with Face/Off. His last great film was Mission: Impossible in 2000. After the failure of Paycheck he went back to China but I didn't resonate with any of his films there (actually I only saw the 1st Red Cliff).
The man is surely a woman now -Zee-Nathalie Emmanuel-from the Fast & Furious series ( a la Nikita, there's even a quote of that, and that's Tcheky Karyo's cameo) and the cop -Sey-Omar Sy-international star since Inotochables- is black. The singer is given more to do and done, and the plot is mambojumbo-ish to the maxxx. The remake has been in the works from the 90's and I think it's great that finally Woo gets to re-do it and in Paris of all places. The script is credited to Brian Helgeland, Josh Sanders and Matt Stueken (surely not all together, , but Woo sure added up his own marks. The whole thing is marred by the need to switch to English all the time, and keep some French just for the picturesque.
But Omar Sy could've been Belmondo. Le Flic.And Nathalie Emmanuel, Delon, Le Samourai.
Woo's daughter, Angeles Woo is acting in it as a killer. Name of her character, Chi Mai ;)
She's also a co-producer.
Lots of juicy parts, Eric Cantona is a Top gangster, Said Taghmaoui is an Arab prince, Diana Silvers is Jenn, the singer, victim and target, Sam Worthington is Finn, the contracter of Zee, he does a Strong Irish accent complete with the annoying "beat of my heart' bit in Irish. A stand-out, stunt woman Aurelia Ager as the baddie blonde evil henchie with ponytails Juliet, her 1st real acting part (hope she goes Zoe Bell's way).
The music is key, Marco Beltrami at the helm, with Buck Sanders helping him, doing an Ennio Morricone tribute, with whisting, a woman operatic voice, complete with a song (that integrates the film-"Introuvable", sang by Jorane), Eric Serra style. There's even a cue from Le Samourai, "Costello dans la ville", from the score by Francois de Roubaix.
Very well lit cinematography by Mauro Fiore, Antoine Fuqua and Oscar winner for Avatar cinematographer. Edited by Zach Staenberg, the guy who cut all the Matrix trilogy.
So, it's flawed, it's naive but I could feel it's goodhearted as opposed to cringe, and someone else would've done it worse.
It looks like a Europacorps prod. from the 90's, it's been in development for so long, Universal studios bound, and though it ended on streaming.
Pity it wasn't in theaters, even if it's not John Wick (a series that took from Woo big time), it's his Grandfather and granddaughters. Inc.
3 out of 5, 6 out of 10 !
