KATE [Netflix]

pixelburp

Ever feel like these John Wick, Lucy knock offs are beginning to blur into each other?

https://youtu.be/MysGjRS9jFU

Fysh

I thought Mary Elizabeth Winstead was a high point of the recent BoP movie, so between that and the Crank-like setup I'll give this a go. Looks like a good option for sticking on the projector of a Friday night.

Slydice

Honestly opened the thread wondering if a Katie Taylor film was in the works 😅

Yeah Mary Elizabeth Winstead in this role definitely bigs it up for me. She put in a strong performance in Fargo and Birds of Prey. Mix in a bit of the John Wick feel and this has potential. The trailer looks like it could go either way though. I'm guessing it'll at least at some strong set piece scenes.

Dades

Is there likely to be ANY deviation from the standard template here? Trailer certainly doesn't suggest so.

The only reason I'll watch this is because of MEW and Woody. But dammit I will.

JP Liz V1

Is Woody the big baddie in the end that Atomic Kate Wick gets

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117709823#Comment_117709823

Doesn't look like it, and it's weird given Netflix only just released another "kickass female assassin" movie the other week with Gunpowder Milkshake. Amazon dropped Jolt, cut from similar cloth so as you say there's definitely a template these days. The cgi car crash in the trailer was kinda terrible.

Winstead is a good choice though; she got left behind by the Margot Robbie Fanclub Hour that was Birds of Prey, but anytime she has played an action part, has acquitted herself very well. Good to see her get a starring role, so here's hoping the film itself is decent.

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pixelburp

This type never said the quantity was any kind of problem, only the curiousity of it being the latest (sub)genre Hollywood chase. Which they love doing. Arguably a trend in the genre revitalised with John Wick, especially for the "cast a traditionally non-action star in visceral, stylish fisticuffs" approach to movies.(*) Wanting them to be good goes without saying, cos when they work they can tick along with the precision of a watch.

* What's funny is the actual, traditional physiques for these films are now headlining the mainstream blockbusters, with The Rock or Gina Carano to name two - maybe not so much the latter mind

silverharp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbJ4BKhsCrM&t

I watched this film last night DOA , the opening couple of minutes is great, similar main plot point

https://twitter.com/FrazerBrown/status/1423782170716479488

pixelburp

FYI this dropped today.

Slydice

Gave it a watch. It was fine. By the numbers assassin revenger set in Japan.

Definitely not John Wick, Only God Forgives or Atomic Blonde but lots of gun and knife/sword fights. Can't remember seeing that much Swordey/Knifey action/gore since Kill Bill/Old Boy.

It was pretty obvious that from very early that

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Woodie was gonna betray given Kates retiring and the talk she had with him just after getting out of the hospital.

Felt like the main objective was more to get from start to finish in order to deliver the bits in between.

I thought yer man, Kijima (played by Jun Kunimura).. that scene..

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in the house as he talked about what he knew, how he felt and atonement. That was really well acted.

Really liked the set piece at the end where

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she walked into the building with the Yakuza .. that felt new.. I was like.. Ah a good ole business Hostile Takeover! 😁

That one had me good because it felt like they were gonna try a Neo Lobby scene from the matrix but she'd taken so much damage.. the expectation felt daft.

Distractions for me throughout the whole film:

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- Easily telling Woodie would betray

- Not being sure why the type of Polonium .. 204 instead of 210 was a thing.. I looked up Polonium and found 210 has a 138 day half life where 204 has a 3.53 hour half life... so.. I dunno.. maybe it has less chance to go on to affect others around her because it would have worn down so much... and so keeping Ani a bit safe.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_polonium

- The damage being done was a lot and the pain meds cure-all didn't fly very well.

Fysh

Cross-posting from the Netflix thread:

I stuck this on earlier and was glad I did, it was a pretty good Friday night watch. It's roughly Crank (without the edgelord humour) by way of Atomic Blonde. The action is pretty crunchy and well-choreographed, without too much artifice or shakycam nonsense to get in the way.

The narrative is nothing ground-breaking, but Winstead, Harrelson and Miku Martineau (who plays the kid) all do a good enough job with what they're given that you're along for the ride. The pace is good and there's little padding or flab - the running time is 105 minutes but a good 10 mins at the end is credits.

I don't particularly highly rate the John Wick films because there's an awful lot of blather in them about what amounts to the specific colour and length of robe worn by each level of the assassin society hierarchy, which I personally find really dull in a film. So for me this worked probably a bit better than the first John Wick, in that it just got on with things.

pixelburp

I liked it in the end; bar one car crash with some spectacularly bad CGI, the action was otherwise crunchy and relatively grounded; our hero felt sufficiently endangered to give the fights some weight and stakes. Unshowy and violently effective, so anyone wanting their shotouts with a bit less artifice will find satisfaction here. Though anyone who has watched more than 2 of these sorts of movies would have predicted the beats. Winstead was a good lead though, while the kid character was the right side of annoying.