We’re still in the opening title credits of John Woo’s “The Killer” when we see a flock of birds fluttering across the screen.
In an abandoned church.
Why, there’s even a shot of a single bird, captured in slow motion.
From that opening salvo, the 77-year-old Woo is serving notice that the English-language (with a side helping of French) reimagining of his greatly influential 1989 action classic isn’t going to stray all that far from the original, at least in style and signature imagery. Though the story isn’t as dense and not as bleak as the bloody chaos of the original, “The Killer” is a callback to Woo’s Hong Kong movies such as the brilliant “A Better Tomorrow,” as well as his earlier American films from the 1990s and early 2000s, e.g., “Broken Arrow,” “Face/Off” and “Mission: Impossible 2.”
Woo’s work has been a major inspiration to generations of filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, and it’s a thrill to see the elder statesman delivering a kinetic and explosive thriller with amazing stunt work, whether it’s an extended chase scene or an extended shootout that reaches its penultimate moment with the heroine executing a breathtaking move that’s equal parts Simone Biles and John Wick.
“The Killer” is not to be confused with David Fincher’s masterful film of the same name from 2023, though both films begin with a legendary assassin failing to complete the job for the first time in their career, which leads to an existential crisis and the hunter becoming the hunted.
Nathalie Emmanuel (“Game of Thrones,” the “Fast and Furious” franchise) has the role created by Chow Yun-fat in Woo’s 1989 film and is an absolutely electric and screen-commanding force here as Zee, an assassin so deadly and mysterious some believe she’s proof that the legend of “The Queen of the Dead” is no legend at all. (She’s like a female Keyser Söze, only with far more style and fashion sense.)
British actor Sam Worthington does a pretty fair job of corralling an Irish accent as Finn, the obligatory mentor who recognized something special in Zee when she was young and desperate, and turned her into a killing machine. As brutal as their business is, Finn has a soft spot for Zee, referring to her as his “Cushlamacree,” which means “vein of my heart” and is akin to calling someone “sweetheart.”
Every time Finn hands Zee an assignment, she has one question:
“Do they deserve this death?”
“I wouldn’t ask you if they didn’t,” comes the reply.
In an expertly filmed sequence set inside a Parisian club, Zee uses a Samurai sword to take out a number of henchmen, and at one point uses one of their guns to take out a victim. That shot also blinds a singer named Jenn (Diana Silvers) and after Zee ascertains that Jenn remembers nothing of the killing, she decides she’ll take in Jenn and protect her from the people who want her dead.
On a parallel track but soon to cross paths with Zee, many times, is Inspector Sey (Omar Sy), a crusading cop who can’t be bribed or intimidated (unlike many of his colleagues). We also get familiar archetypes, including an arrogant and seemingly untouchable Saudi prince (Said Taghmaoui) and a powerful gangster known as “The Godfather of Paris” (Eric Cantona), and there’s a whole big thing about a stolen heroin shipment with a street value of 300 million Euros — but that’s just the impetus for a series of stylishly rendered action sequences.
When Woo slows down the proceedings, he still holds our attention with nifty split screens and cool wipe transition shots. Even something as rote as a police officer interrogating a suspect features smooth camerawork that makes full use of the room and incorporates a two-way mirror. It’s just a beautifully made film, even when the proceedings turn ugly to the extreme. There’s even a dollop of humor here and there, as when one character says to an associate, “That’s just the Viagra talking.”
“The Killer” is not subtle in its religious symbolism or its theme of redemption. The score by Mauro Fiore is not shy about hammering home the action scenes, and the needle drop of the Grass Roots’ “Let’s Live for Today” pretty much announces the worldview of Zee and Inspector Sey, who go from shooting at one another to striking up something of an alliance due to a common enemy. In lesser hands those touches might be heavy-handed, but thanks to a legendary director at the top of his game, this is easily one of the best action movies of the year.