NOOB FILM REVIEW - THE KILLER & THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 (Netflix)
The two attached movie poster is two movies sitting on opposite ends. Especially when talking about the correct way to copy (pastiche) and a bad way of doing it.
The Killer is a 2024's John Woo directed movie with the same title with the 1989 classic masterpiece which stars Chow Yun-Fat. It has all the trademarks - doves in church, gun-fu etc. But it is quite appalling at this age of tech and information, the one with the money could just settle on the skin-deep cosmetics without any shame. Apart from that, it is quite apparent that this is another attempt to womanised every male archetype IP (havent what happened with MCU past End Game thought them any lesson).
It is not about the sex of the protagonist but more of the bad character writing. Zee (Nathalie Emmanuel) background story does not justify her physical ability to hold a male twice her size nailed on the floor. Unless the writer gave her some super power ability and gave the audience the little suspension of disbelief. But none of them happened here. So unlike classic John Woo, who made us feel how it is being shot in slow motion, empathy is non-existent on this one. The attempt to write a ‘femme fatale’ resulted in a Mary Sue instead.
Many have successfully done a good pastiche out of John Woo’s Gun-Fu - The Matrix, John Wick and Face-Off just to name a few from the classic list. This The Killer is just another unabashed blatant use of the brand by some rampant capitalist with an agenda. Bad pastiche, borderline Kitsch. Avoid this one like a plague.
On the other hand, The Woman in Cabin 10 is a good example of good pastiche. From the start the director gave the audience a good exposition of the main protagonist, which is a Lois Lane type kind of journalist. She was invited by a wife of a rich man whos dying of leukemia for a ride in a luxury yacht to cover a story of her charity gala event. During the journey, a pandora’s box opens and this has taken Laura (Kiera Knightley) and also the audience into a well written (and well directed) mystery-thriller. We will finally understand why she was selected to be on the cruise.
A good pastiche because it copies (intelligently) from other classics with similar template like Vertigo (1958) or more relevant, Murder on the Orient Express (both 1974/2017). For the protagonist female character arch, this film reminded me of Black Swan (2010) with good pay-off and closure in the end. Worth a watch.