With this year’s The Killer, legendary filmmaker John Woo remakes one of his finest. His 1989 blood and bullets masterpiece of the same name is widely (and rightfully) regarded as one of the great action pictures. Redoing such a beloved classic could have been a disaster, but with Woo at the helm, the new version exists as a surprisingly successful and entertaining cinematic journey. 

When a director remakes one of their own films, it almost never goes well. The harshest example is when George Sluizer reshot his highly-regarded 1988 thriller, The Vanishing, for an American audience and (somehow) made it feel like a cheap knockoff. While Hans Petter Moland’s 2019 film, Cold Pursuit, was a decent (but stilted) American rehash of his excellent 2014 Norwegian thriller In Order of Disappearance, one wonders if remakes should always be handled by another director. 

With The Killer, John Woo has broken the mold. Of course this updated incarnation cannot reach the operatic brilliance of the 1989 original, but Woo and screenwriters Brian Helgeland, Josh Campbell, and Matt Stuecken have restructured the story in a quite interesting fashion. After being stuck in development hell for over 25 years, the remake found the right script to solidify the director’s involvement. The interest level is always high, the characters are well-written, and the action set pieces are old-school Woo greatness. 

Moving the setting from Hong Kong to Paris, the main crux of the story is pretty much the same. An assassin named Zee (a great Nathalie Emmanuel), unintentionally blinds “innocent” bystander Jenn (Diana Silvers) during a contract hit. Zee’s guilt overcomes her once her boss Finn (Sam Worthington) orders her to kill the young woman. The fact that Jenn cannot say what the killer looked like makes no difference, as Finn wants no loose ends. Zee’s moral crisis kicks in. As she does her best to keep Jenn alive, a Paris cop named Sey (the wonderful Omar Sy, gifted with one of his finest roles) is put in charge of the case. Cop and killer will cross paths, as each discovers the honor and morality within them isn’t as different as they might imagine. 

The original film (written by Woo) stood out for its unique examination of the relationships between the three main characters (cop, killer, and innocent). The director was sly as he played with audience expectations and allegiances. While this update doesn’t go as psychologically deep, Zee, Sey, and Jenn are strongly defined. The morality play between them is executed quite well by the screenplay and the three performers. 

As he is one of the most visually unique filmmakers working, Woo doesn’t make us wait for his signature style to kick in. The Killer‘s first moments find Zee inside a deconsecrated church as doves and pigeons take flight around her. As any John Woo aficionado knows, when the doves take flight, the action isn’t far behind and the director fills the picture with many thrilling scenes crafted in the beloved Woo style. 

There is an exciting car chase on the streets of Paris that is old school excellence, ending in a relentless foot pursuit where Sey runs after a baddie who openly fires his gun on the crowded streets. 

A cleverly designed sequence comes inside a small Parisian nightclub where Zee uses a Samurai sword to dispatch a bevy of henchmen. While she slices through skin and limbs, the mastery of Woo’s imagination plays out, as Zee uses their own guns against them in outlandishly entertaining ways. 

The highlight of all the action comes in the finale where Zee and Sey protect Jenn from the villains inside the aforementioned church and its adjacent cemetery. Bullets, blood, people, (and doves!) fly in one of the best John Woo gunfight scenes in years. 

Zach Staenberg’s tight editing makes the action pop while keeping the suspense sharp. The use of split screen and transition swipes enhances the film’s entertaining visual language. Mauro Fiore’s smooth camera keeps Paris bright and uses the city well, while choosing not to fall back on sweeping shots of its well-known landmarks. Staenberg and Fiore’s great work gives Woo his best looking film since 2009’s Red Cliff. 

The entire exercise is wrapped in a fantastic score from composer Marco Beltrami. Through whispering female vocals, offbeat saxophone riffs, and driving guitars against an orchestral backdrop, Beltrami has crafted compositions that pay homage to Ennio Morricone’s work for the European crime thrillers of the 1970s. In an age of forgettable film scores that are nothing more than sound queues, this one is something special. 

At 77, John Woo is still a master of his craft. While his best work has always been in his native Hong Kong, even his time in Hollywood (where he did his least interesting films, save for a couple) resulted in some of the most impressively designed action scenes of their day. This one isn’t a “Hollywood” film, but finds Woo outside of his Hong Kong comfort zone. Catch the news, as one of our finest filmmakers, it doesn’t matter where he makes a movie, good or bad, he always has something interesting to deliver. 

This film is not as strong as the 1989 original, but that would be an impossible task to achieve. On its own, this new incarnation is a beautifully constructed thriller with a great script that gives its fine cast something to work with. 

No John Woo film can be accused of being “standard”, as his distinctive eye always seeks to craft something special. With the director’s trademark style, penchant for jaw-dropping set-pieces and artful bloodshed, The Killer is easily one of the best action thrillers of the year.

The Killer

Written by Brian Helgeland, Josh Campbell, & Matt Stuecken (Based on an original screenplay by John Woo)

Directed by John Woo

Starring Nathalie Emmanuel, Omar Sy, Diana Silvers, Sam Worthington, Tchéky Karyo, Saïd Taghmaoui

R, 126 Minutes, A Better Tomorrow Films, Entertainment One, Peacock Originals