Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Tymon Sutton
The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Ginger
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
rodrig58
I wanted to see a film at the height of Le Samouraï (1967), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. I was hoping to have the atmosphere and feelings of the masterpiece with Alain Delon. And this The Killer by John Woo seemed very promising at first. But in fact, after the first 5 minutes, the film becomes just an endless series of shootings, explosions and stunts. Many are even hilarious if not ridiculous. All guns have an endless number of bullets, pull indefinitely, without changing chargers. Among shootings and leaps forward, jumps back, tumbles and falls from height, many more gasps, moaning, sighs and groaning of the blind heroine or of those mobsters who are shot. Each one, many many times. Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee are both two nice, beautiful guys, with a lot of charisma and personality. But their stature and beautiful smile does not save the film from the mediocrity that makes me think of Bollywood melodramas type. The melancholic music, actually, the same few notes repeated throughout the film, also contribute to that. Some consider it a masterpiece and a cult film. I do not. The classics with James Cagney, Paul Muni, Lee Marvin or Jack Palance, are much better. Because they look more realistic!
ivo-cobra8
The Killer (1989) is in my opinion John Woo's masterpiece and one of the best classic action films from Hong Kong I have ever seen. It is one of my personal favorite John Woo action movies. This film has everything, it has even a sad ending, which neither one action movie has that kind of ending. Chow Yun-Fat gave us one of his best performances ever, Danny Lee was outstanding as Hong Kong Police officer. The action, the gore, the violence, the gun play everything is in this movie. The final showdown in the church was one the best action scenes ever made in a film.
It is my fifth favorite John Woo film! The first four will be Hard Target (1993), Hard Boiled (1992), Broken Arrow (1996) and Paycheck (2003) this is the fifth John Woo favorite action film of mine that I love to death. Chow Yun-Fat's character Ah Jong was well written and well done, but it isn't close as is his character Insp. 'Tequila' Yuen from Hard Boiled. This is was the first film with John Woo as I have saw when I was 10. years old, I think I was 12 or 13 when I first time saw Hard Boiled, but still I had no Idea both of the movies are from same director with the same actor. I love this movie to death and it is one of my favorite action movies.Plot: Chow Yun-Fat stars as an expert assassin who finds himself conflicted with his work in his one last hit in hopes of using his earnings to restore vision to a singer he accidentally blinded, only to be double-crossed by his boss. Danny Lee co-stars as the Hong Kong Police Force inspector determined to catch the assassin and take down the organization that employs him. These two guys from the opposite worlds end up becoming friends and working together to bring down their bigger enemy.The Killer gained numerous international accolades for Woo and its influence can be seen in countless action films in the following decades including in the movies directed by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. The action is, as always with a John Woo movie, spectacular but the characters are well developed and the story is very engaging. It's not quite as big in scale as Hard Boiled but it's still very well paced with plenty of great action. What is it about Hit men in movies that they are always so damn cool? Like Hard Boiled, the music is pretty cheap and forgettable sounding but it doesn't detract from the action. We get the doves, the slow-mo and the religious imagery aplenty in this film and as with Hard Boiled there is little to find fault with.I still love Hard Boiled better than The Killer because Hard Boiled has happy ending and The Killer has not a happy ending, but still I love this movie and it is an action Classic and John Woo directing this movie did the best job ever as been the director and a writer the same time. This man John Woo is outstanding and the actors are just amazing, the characters are well written and the chemistry between Chow Yun-fat and Danny Lee is well written and are making a great due as the opposite team. You know Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang and Walter Hill should all take a school of action movies from John Woo's The Killer, because those three American guys sucked at making an action film in 2012 Bullet to the Head failed and it sucked ass. Sylvester Stallone and Sung Kang as a hired hit-man and a police detective had no written chemistry working together and they both suck! Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee are the real team as hired professional hit-man and a Hong Kong police officer. Those two guys are the real team, I will rather watch this movie than Walter Hill's Bullet to the Head! This movie it is a perfect 10, it takes the vision of one of the most creative intelligent action directors in HK cinema eve! The film is filled the most explosive showdowns in cinematic history. It is loaded with some with the most outrageously choreographed action sequences ever committed to film and an absolute hailstorm of bullets. It is fast paced, better more choreographed stylized action. The Killer is a perfect action film as one could ask for.Overall: I think The Killer is on par with Hard Boiled but there's maybe a little more focus on the story than action....but the action in that delivers too. A pair with Hard Boiled is a it's truly bad ass. My favorite action movie with Hard Target and Hard Boiled! I love them to death it get's a perfect 10!
BA_Harrison
Honourable assassin Ah Jong (Chow Yun Fat) accidentally blinds pretty club singer Jenny (Sally Yeh) while carrying out a hit, but tries to make amends by taking one last job to pay for a cornea transplant for the injured girl. After Ah Jong is double crossed by Hoi, the triad boss who hired him, he finds himself forging an unlikely friendship with Li Ying (Danny Lee), the reckless cop who has been pursuing him.During the late '80s/early '90s, I attended several round-the-clock horror movie events at The Scala Cinema in King's Cross, London. One year, between movies, they screened an excerpt from a Hong Kong action flick that was so insanely violent that the usually rowdy crowd of gore-hounds fell silent in awe. The clip was from John Woo's The Killer, and it was my introduction to the glorious world of heroic bloodshed, where the line between hero and villain becomes seriously blurred, friendship, honour and redemption are common themes, and every bullet hit results in a bright red gout of blood!Featuring standout performances from Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee, and superb direction from Woo, whose handling of his movie's emotional drama is as assured as his hyper-stylised hi-octane action scenes, The Killer remains one of the undisputed highlights of the entire bloodshed genre. The gun-play might be preposterous but it is brilliantly choreographed, with the frantic finale inside a church, which sees Ah Jong and Li Ying shooting it out against countless bad guys, bringing together all of Woo's trademarks: religious icons, balletic ballistic action, white doves, slow motion, and lots and lots of dead bodies.The film ends on a surprisingly downbeat note, which makes it an all the more powerful experience overall, one that would get full marks from me, if only I could understand how Ah Jong loses both his eyes in the final gunfight: tragically poetic it might be, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense (if he was shot in both of his eyes, wouldn't the bullets have taken off the back of his skull?).9/10 (until someone can adequately explain Ah Jong's ocular trauma).
tombstoneangel
a professional murderer , a detective , a criminal organization , and nightclub singer , are the ingredients of this spectacular action film John Woo, the film offers shootings , explosions, chases , beatings , deaths and thousands scenes , what more striking , with subtle music , blessed with refined narrative john Woo , also with a frenetic editing ; achieved explore a world of murderers , police, mobsters, where everyone moves through hatred and violence.All characters are loners , lead very sad and empty life ; when Ah Jong and Jennie are known comes the romance, establishing an illusion , making the lives of the two characters makes sense , this film touches on the theme of friendship in a very profound way , some male characters have integrity , Ah Jong and Li Ying are men of honor, these two characters defend the honor, and are also relentless in imposing his righteousness .This film production is high quality , tough and courageous entertainment.
