Ο Δολοφόνος

Patrick Willems

Is it as good as the original? Of course not. Does it look like an ugly cheap streaming movie? Unfortunately yes. Does it have the main character wearing a custom dress designed to conceal the pieces of a carbon fiber samurai sword that she then assembles and uses to fuck up a bunch of dudes? Also yes, and that matters more

davidehrlich3.5

It’s been more than 30 years since John Woo first came to Hollywood, and it often feels like he’s been looking for a way back to Hong Kong ever since — or at least a way back to the iconic action filmmaker he was when he worked there in the ’80s and early ’90s. Orgiastically blending the muted cool of a Jean-Pierre Melville neo-noir with the explosive melodrama of a Martin Scorsese crime epic and the florid grandiosity of a Chinese opera, Woo’s elevated style clashed with the meat-and-potatoes ethos of American blockbusters (“Face/Off” endures as a crucial exception, in large part because its story was as heightened as the way that Woo chose to tell it). The same ecstasy that defined Cantonese-language classics like “Hard Boiled” and “A Better Tomorrow” seemed more like self-parody after being translated into “Mission: Impossible 2,” and last year’s dreadfully generic “Silent Night” suggested that Woo had lost whatever was left of his voice as an artist.Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly filled with confidence when it was first announced that Woo intended to direct a Universal Pictures remake of “The Killer” (arguably the most famous of his Hong Kong films), and the pit at the bottom of my stomach only grew bigger at the news that it would premiere directly on Peacock. The project seemed destined to illustrate Woo’s fall-off on the saddest and most damning of terms; an all-too-fitting deathblow for a director who’s been chasing his own shadow for decades. By the time I sat down to stream this thing, I was barely holding out hope that it would be watchable, let alone represent a creative renaissance that delivered on the stray promise of 2017’s “Manhunt.” I had no reason to imagine that it would be Woo’s most satisfying movie of this millennium, or that repeating himself would be what finally inspired him to make something fresh. But that’s the beauty of being alive, isn’t it? Sometimes there’s God so quickly — even in the most deconsecrated of churches.Is “The Killer” (2024) going to be remembered with the same reverence as its namesake? Of course not. It probably won’t even be remembered with the same reverence as “The Killer” (2023). But this fun and delightfully self-possessed August surprise doesn’t harbor any delusions that it will be. In fact, the movie works so well — and remains so light on its feet — because it eschews the life-or-death weight of Woo’s original in favor of focusing on the unbridled joys of resurrection. Wrapped in shiny tinsel where the 1989 film was covered in the blood of Christ, this remake doesn’t shy away from the sheer religiosity of its source material, but it’s so happy for the chance to be reborn that even Woo’s most dedicated fans might forget the cross it has to bear.~this review continues on IndieWire~

matt lynch3.0

This was never gonna be another smoldering violent romantic opera masterpiece. It's got more of a caper-ish ONCE A THIEF tone. Clearly Woo reflecting on his work and choosing a more hopeful direction. The action is hardly his best but I preferred it to that of SILENT NIGHT (and the movie overall as well).