The Killer Review: Chemistry Keeps John Woo's Remake Alive

Chemistry Keeps John Woo’s Remake of The Killer Alive

If there’s a takeaway to August as it draws to a close, it’s that the one-two punch of the 2024 Summer Olympics and Peacock’s The Killer have infused me with the je ne sais quoi of Paris. Going from watching volleyball matches set against the Eiffel Tower to director John Woo blissfully framing head shots along the banks of the Seine, the City of Light has earned my newfound appreciation for its aesthetic flexibility.

Of course, Woo would know best how to stage Paris to best service his signature style of operatic killing and mayhem. When body parts or spurting blood aren’t flying into frame, you’d almost believe Woo has gone soft with how lovingly he stages the city to host the remake of his 1989 Hong Kong action classic, The Killer. It’s either that or he got some sweet tax credits to hide a beautifully lit advertorial for the city inside his carnage-filled drama.

The more pertinent question is why is Woo revisiting The Killer some 35 years after he already did it right the first time with actors Chow Yun-fat and Danny Lee? The answer is that for 32 of those years, Woo was attached to produce a remake that never ended up happening, despite a steady stream of filmmaker interest over its many screenplay iterations. It wasn’t until 2015 that a revised script by writers Brian Helgeland, Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken, which flipped the gender of Yun-fat’s assassin character, wooed Woo back to Hollywood to reimagine his classic.

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Obviously, it still took a while to get made, but now we have Peacock’s The Killer starring Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei in Game of Thrones) as Zee, a ruthless assassin based in Paris. A real whiz with wigs, finely tailored coats and leather death pants, Zee kills for Finn (Sam Worthington), her Irish handler who lovingly tolerates her annoying moral compass because she’s so good at what she does.

Much like the original film, Zee is assigned to take out the henchmen of the city’s most powerful drug dealer, which she does with swords hidden in her coat, earning an A+ for blood-soaked creativity and carving skills. What she doesn’t do is kill the only survivor in the room, Jenn (Diana Silvers), a young chanteuse who cracked her head during the melee and lost her vision. Turns out that Zee’s mercy doesn’t sit well with Finn, because Jenn was witness to a deal gone bad and knows where $75 million worth of drugs are being stashed. Sympathetic towards the songbird because of a familial similarity, Zee nevertheless plans to finish the job at the hospital with a little IV poison. Instead, Inspector Sey (Omar Sy) is already in Jenn’s room taking her statement. So Zee has to pretend to be Jenn’s advocate from the American consulate and find out what he knows.

It’s the palpable, playful chemistry between Emmanuel and Sy that finally gives this version of The Killer a reason to exist. Their rapport is a little bit sexy, witty and plenty world-weary. Every time they reunite, the film crackles back to life. And that happens often enough as the two implicitly agree on their common cause of keeping Jenn alive as they peel back the layers of a much bigger conspiracy involving corrupt cops, a compromised Saudi Prince (Saïd Taghmaoui) and a very vexed “Godfather of Paris” kingpin who wants his missing drugs back. During all of this, Finn won’t leave Zee alone about completing the hit on Jenn because his boss needs all of the witnesses erased.

Along the way Zee, Sey and a lot of random assassins lay waste to Parisian places of interest like cafes, a whole hospital wing, a police station and eventually a deconsecrated church and graveyard. Way too many civilians lose their lives just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but such is the way of Woo. Fans who have been missing the maestro’s particular style of action will get a kick out of him playing his greatest hits here, replete with slow-mo birds in flight, operatic music, visceral kills, blood splatter-ramas, and acrobatic takedowns. Emmanuel and Sy execute well, literally and figuratively, but there’s so much slaughter that it all gets a bit ho-hum, especially by the last act.

There’s also the problem of Worthington’s Finn, who exudes suss stalker vibes when it comes to Zee. Sporting an accent that even Lucky the Leprechaun would say is a bit much, Worthington hovers around her like a gnat, either relentlessly prodding her to kill Jenn or overusing his “cushlamachree” endearment to the point of parody. Seriously, it’s a drinking game in the making. Worthington goes so big here that there’s no space left for nuance or authentic connection between the two, which makes their entire storyline a dud. Luckily the aforementioned Zee/Sey dynamic works, and Jenn and Zee’s downtime together builds a sort of sisterhood that tempers all of the testosterone.

All of the various storylines coalesce together in a bullets-blazing, battle royale finale that’s about 10 minutes and two setpieces too long. It does prove that Emmanuel’s got action star chops, and I wouldn’t be mad if she and Sy were reunited in a sequel that sent these two outsiders out on another adventure together. I also won’t shed a tear if that doesn’t happen. In terms of how it ranks in the Woo oeuvre, it’s middle of the pack. It certainly scratches a very particular action itch but doesn’t come near besting the original.

Director: John Woo
Writers: Brian Helgeland, Josh Campbell, Matt Stuecken
Starring: Nathalie Emmanuel, Omar Sy, Sam Worthington, Diana Silvers, Saïd Taghmaoui, Hugo Diego Garcia
Release Date: August 23, 2024 (Peacock)

Tara Bennett is a Los Angeles-based writer covering film, television and pop culture for publications such as SFX Magazine, NBC Insider, SYFY Wire and more. She’s also written official books on Sons of Anarchy, Outlander, Fringe, The Story of Marvel Studios, Avatar: The Way of Water and the upcoming The Art of Ryan Meinerding. You can follow her on Twitter @TaraDBennett or Instagram @TaraDBen

Chemistry Keeps John Woo’s Remake of The Killer Alive