Brief Story Line
Zee (Nathalie Emmanuel - Fast X, Arthur the King etc) was one of the assassins working for Finn (Sam Worthington - Avatar: The Way of Water, The Titan etc) who was usually hired by various clients, including French crime boss Jules Gobert (Eric Cantona - AKA etc). During Zee's latest assignment, an amateur singer named Jenn (Diana Silvers - Space Force TV series etc) was caught in the cross fire which resulted to her losing sight. Unexpectedly, Zee decided to let Jenn alive which made Finn furious.
Meanwhile Inspector Sey (Omar Sy - Lupin TV series, Jurassic World: Dominion etc) who was working on a large heroin case was getting a lot of heat due to his latest act. As Sey investigated further, he would soon cross path with Zee.
So what would happen to Zee, Jenn and Sey and how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I found out about this movie a couple of weeks back which made me intrigued cause it was said to be a remake of one of the popular John Woo film of the same title. I remember seeing it so many years ago on TV and was quite impressed as it was a 1989 movie but the action was well done and the story was interesting. However, I only realized that they did a gender swap in here where the killer (originally played by Chow Yun-fat) was now portrayed by Nathalie Emmanuel. I thought she would be portraying the singer, while Omar Sy would be the killer. Anyway as I continued watching, there were plenty of other changes to the story that did not really resonate to me. I think they tried to make the story a little bit complex and more modern, but the relationship between the killer and the "victim" was less convincing.
Aside from those changes, the action was still entertaining with some explicit violence. It felt rather chaotic at first but grew more stylish as it progressed with a rather explosive, albeit over the top climax scene. It reminded me why John Woo was such a respected name and was a major influence to some Hollywood directors. The Paris scenery was lovely as well which was obviously different from Hong Kong. Since it was set in France, the movie also had several French cast to support like Tchéky Karyo (La Femme Nikita etc) as Tessier the tailor, Grégory Montel (Upgraded etc) as Sey's partner Jax and few others. Oh there was also the name of Angeles Woo (John Woo's daughter) in here as Chi Mai.
The film had a rather long duration of 126 minutes including closing credits that did not have any mid or post end credit scenes. The lead cast were quite OK though I could not help thinking that maybe if the main characters were like I thought earlier, the movie would be more engaging. I read that it was based on screenplay by Brian Helgeland (writer of L. A. Confidential, Mystic River and some TV series), Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken. Since the film never played in the cinemas (only released in the US through Peacock and HBO Go in Indonesia), I am not sure how it would fare in term of box office. It was getting a mixed review from critics, which might or might not have any implication to audience views.
Overall I felt this to be an unnecessary remake as it did not really improve on an already entertaining action film. It was still fun to see the action but the story was definitely not an upgrade (I prefer the simplicity and human relation in the original). Maybe if I had never seen the 1989 Hong Kong movie, I might be enjoying this one more. So if you are interested in seeing John Woo's better Western movies, I believe Face/Off or Mission: Impossible 2 would be a more suitable option, or just go with his other classics like A Better Tomorrow, Hard Boiled etc.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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