Now Streaming: John Woo's THE KILLER (No, Not That One)

There will be doves. And slow motion. And broken glass. And bloody bodies.

The Killer (20240
Now streaming on Peacock TV .

In Paris, where every window has a perfectly-framed view of the Eiffel Tower, Zee (Natalie Emmanuel) lives quietly, waiting for her next assignment from Finn (Sam Worthington). All she needs to know is, "Do they deserve to die?" With an answer in the affirmative, she's off, ready to kill anyone and everyone.

One night, she is assigned to kill everyone in a nightclub. A bystander, Jenn (Diana Silvers), is blinded in the murderous assault. Later, feeling a measure of remorse for her actions, Zee takes in Jenn and protects her against Finn, who is furious that she remains alive. Meanwhile, police officer Sey (Omar Sy) ...

You know, it's pointless for me to lay out any more of the setup, because all you need to know is that John Woo has made a new film. Less operatic than gymnastic, The Killer (2024) will not make anyone forget The Killer (1989), which for now is not available to stream and has gone out of print in the U.S., as far as physical media is concerned.

Having possessed a copy of the film on Criterion DVD for some years (before selling it to help make my rent one month), and also having seen it on 35mm at the Asian Film Festival of Dallas in the 2000s, I can say that the original is a peerless classic which has etched itself into my brain cells. Its influence has reverberated through the decades.

Of course, John Woo knows this, and I'm sure he has noted copycats in nearly every action film in the decades since, including his own. In effect, he has decided to set all that aside and make his own darn remake, since Hollywood has failed to do so, and he set the film in Paris, which seems fitting, considering the influence that Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai (1967), starring the recently-departed Alain Delon, exerted upon him and his original version of The Killer.

Flipping the gender of the assassin is a good start, though it must be noted that flipping the gender of more (or all) the characters would have been welcome, since the original traded on the notion of sibling rivalry and played with homoerotic tendencies, even as it added to the heroic bloodshed sub-genre with its own clever, stylish twists.

As it is, The Killer (2024) recalls the original without replaying it entirely. It plays off old themes, introduces a few new melodies, and features far more outlandish action sequences, with much vehicular mayhem, than the super-intense interior shootouts that were the hallmark of the original.

Now that we're in the 21st century, it also replaces the original's Hong Kong melodrama with the modern style of international disputes involving countless nameless bad guys. Rather than intense interplay between the hitman and the cop -- no deep stares, no yearning for a closer connection -- their relationship takes the approach of a buddy comedy, where opposites attract and become friends despite their differences.

John Woo's The Killer (2024) is not your father's The Killer (1989), nor should it be. The original still lives, and someday it will return to physical media and perhaps to a streaming service, too. For now, The Killer (2024) exists, reason enough to celebrate the idea that John Woo himself still lives and wants to continue making movies.