Movie Review: The Killer
Intro
“The Killer” represents all that is cool about Hong-Kong action films of the late 80′s and early 90′s. It’s directed by action maestro John Woo and stars familar face Chow-Yun Fat, the king of gunplay.
The premise is simple and familiar if you’ve seen Woo’s other films like “Hard-Boiled”, or “A Better Tomorrow”. Take one cop, one criminal and a common and numerous enemy and throw in a shitload of guns and explosions. It’s an idea still being rehashed constantly in modern Hollywood actions pictures like “Exit Wounds”.
Story
As the back of the box says, “The Killer” is “a literal landmark in modern Action-Cinema” and Woo’s love of two-fisted gunplay and gratuitous use of slow-mo has inspired countless computer games like “Max Payne” and a number of huge mainsteam films like “The Matrix”.
Chow Yun Fat plays Jeff, (at least in the dubbed version), a professional hitman who is taking on one last job to finance the eye operation, of singer Jennie, whom he accidentally blinded during a botched assassination attempted inside a club.
Jeff teams up with an obsessive cop whom he slowly befriends (when they’re not trying to kill each other), and together they take on the mutual enemy of a large criminal organisation led by a maniacal villian whom Jeff must kill to collect the reward to finance Jennie’s operation.
It’s really a movie about the bonds of brotherhood and loyalty though and explores deeply the developing relationship between the two men.
6/10
Action
As a “landmark” action picture you’d be right to expect a seriously high bodycount and you won’t be disappointed as our two heroes blast threir way through countless foe, dispatching them all with ruthless efficiency and although the majority of deaths are run of the mill shootings, there is just so much death that the bodycount grows almost to the point of ridiculousness.
The final battle, in which our two leading men barricade themselves within in a church with a bag full of guns is extended and violent to the point of absurdity as enemy after enemy after enemy is mowed down as soon as they cross the thresh-hold!
It’s one hell of an action movie and an inspiration to more than a decade of action cinema which followed.
10/10
Acting
As far as Hong Kong films go, which I find on the whole tend to contain a lot of shitty acting, “The Killer” is fairly competent as a study of complex relationships in high-stress situations.
Or at least some crap like that, in reality it’s a fairly solid buddy movie and Chow Yun Fat tackles the piece with the kind of conviction we’ve come to expect from him.
7.5/10
Overall
The Killer might not have the best story or wonderful acting, but holy batman a crapload of people sure get shot!
7.8/10