KATE : Monday 13th September 2021.

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown now until the end of September at least, and as a result all cinema's closed until sometime after this date, I've been reviewing recently some the latest feature films released onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own sofa at home this week is the American action thriller 'KATE' Directed by the Frenchman Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. This is only Nicolas-Troyan's second feature film making credit following 2016's 'The Hunstsman : Winter's War' although he did perform Second Unit Director duties on 2012's 'Snow White and the Huntsman' and 2014's 'Maleficent'. Worthy of note is that David Leitch serves as Producer on this film - he who made his Directorial debut on the 2014 action film 'John Wick' with Chad Stahelski, though only Stahelski was credited. Leitch then Directed the 2017 thriller film 'Atomic Blonde', followed by 2018's 'Deadpool 2', and then in 2019, 'Hobbs & Shaw', and sure enough his influence is clearly evident in the action set pieces and the stunt work seen in this film. Released onto Netflix on 10th September, the film has garnered mixed or average Reviews.

The film opens up with an aerial shot of a pink ice cream truck making its way around the streets of Osaka, Japan. The truck pulls up in a yard full of shipping containers. Inside the back of the truck is Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Varrick (Woody Herrelson) having a final conversation about her hit on a powerful yakuza officer. It turns out that Kate is an expert assassin and sniper who eliminates targets chosen by her trusted long term mentor, handler and father figure, Varrick. After she was left orphaned as a child, Varrick took her in and raised her giving her extensive training in weapons handling and combat techniques and eventually bringing her into his private team of those with a very particular set of skills. After dispensing with a pair of yakuza goons Kate prepares herself with her rifle in a prime position overlooking the expected point of arrival of a car. The vehicle duly pulls up and the syndicate member steps out of his car and presents himself as the target, but Kate resists taking the shot initially because a child has unexpectedly accompanied him. She hesitates, seeks clarification of the kill order and then asks once more before pulling the trigger and killing the target on Varrick's insistence. 

Fast forward ten months, and we are in Tokyo. While Kate's assignment was successful, she can't shake the fact that this breach of their personal code to not kill in the presence of children leaves her emotionally scarred. She tells Varrick that she will do one final mission, and then retire so she can start a new normal life. Varrick is none too pleased at this news and says that after two visits to Walmart she'll come hurrying back, but Kate is undaunted. Before her last mission Kate is relaxing in a hotel bar alone sipping on a glass of Margaux. A guy named Stephen (Michiel Huisman) sidles up and the pair strike up a conversation, which leads them to sharing a bottle of wine which leads them into bed. Afterwards and before Stephen has left she gets a text message from Varrick saying one last dance, tonight, at 11:00pm on the roof top of some tall city building. Up on the roof top of that building while preparing herself, she starts feeling dizzy and unable to focus causing her to miss the shot. She shoots again, and then again but by which time the mark has got away. Kate soon enough comes to the realisation that Stephen must have poisoned her. She steals a souped up car and after a high speed car chase through the streets of Tokyo followed by the goons guarding her failed mark, she ultimately crashes her car end over end landing on its roof. 

She comes round in a hospital and learns from the Doctor that she has acute radiation poisoning from Polonium 204 and only twenty-four hours or so to live. She steals injectable stimulant drugs and a gun and sets out to take out her revenge on whoever poisoned her. Kate traces Stephen and his girlfriend to their apartment, and threatening them both at gunpoint learns that they were strong-armed into poisoning her by Sato, a yakuza affiliated with the Kijima crime family. 

Kate finds Sato (Koji Nishiyama) at a luxury restaurant called The Black Lizard, and kills him along with dozens of armed yakuza (in a bloodbath action set-piece straight out of 'John Wick' or 'Kill Bill'). Sato's last man standing reveals that Kijima's niece Ani (Miku Martineau) might be able to tell her where the reclusive head of the crime family might be in hiding. Upon tracking down Ani to a nightclub Kate realises that Ani is the girl who stood beside her father during the opening Osaka mission. 

Kate uses Ani to lure Kijima out into the open. Renji (Tadanobu Asano) sees himself as the natural and younger successor to the older Kijima and so sends Shinzo (Kazuya Tanabe) and a bunch of goons to Kate's designated meeting place. After another action set piece in which Kate thwarts all manner of goons she ends up shooting Shinzo who was ready to dispense with Ani following Renji's orders. After this, Kate and Ani share a quiet moment in an alleyway as Kate cough's up blood and is physically exhausted. She decides to become Ani's protector upon learning that her family want her dead as part of an internal power struggle. So how to get to Renji? Ani suggests that his boyfriend Jojima (Miyavi) might be able to lead them to him and he can be found in their shared penthouse apartment. Upon arriving Jojima is not prepared to divulge Renji's whereabouts and a fight breaks out with Jojima gaining the upper hand over Kate, but he is ultimately killed by Ani with a swift blow to the head with a very heavy object. Kate uncovers a semi automatic assault rifle with laser sight and a hand gun concealed in the fridge door and so the pair go in search of Renji, which they are able to do by tracking his whereabouts on Jojima's mobile phone. 

Renji is ambushed in his car by Kate who kills the driver and another guard but lets Renji go free when he tells her that he doesn't know where Kijima is, except that he spending 'family time'. Ani however, knows that family time means time spent in his childhood home in the hills. And so, getting in a taxi they head to the hills and Kijima's family home. Kate calls Varrick from the taxi and bids her final farewell, telling him to collect her body from the hills. 

Upon arriving Kate is on her last legs and she tells Ani to beat it. Venturing into the house, Kate finds Kijima (Jun Kunimura) alone. They talk, with Kijima resigned to his fate, but not before he tells her that Renji made a deal with Varrick to incorporate his team into the syndicate in exchange for killing Kijima and all of his blood relatives. Varrick pulls up and outside Kijima's house meets Ani sat on the curbside. He proceeds to tell her that Kate killed her father in Osaka and is responsible for the deaths of almost her entire family. A single shot rings out from inside the house, implying that Kate has shot dead Kijima. When Kate emerges, a tearful Ani confronts her, raising a gun, pulling the trigger and shooting Kate sending her reeling backwards seemingly dead. Ani gets into the car with Varrick and the pair drive off. 

Soon afterwards Kijima appears and hands Kate an injectable stimulant which she plunges into her leg giving her an hour or so respite. Kijima, aware that Kate is close to death, provides her with a small army of his men to assault Renji's headquarters, where Varrick has taken Ani. Kate. Kijima and their small army arrive and following a fierce close quarter gunfight, all of Renji and Varrick's men are killed. Kijima personally slices the top of Renji's head off with a samurai sword for his betrayal. 

Kate locates Varrick, who is holding Ani at gunpoint. The two stand guns drawn facing each other. Both shoot at the same time with Kate caught a glancing blow and Varrick is fatally shot in the stomach, slumping down in a chair to die shortly afterwards. Ani then helps Kate walk outside to the roof, where Kate, finally at peace with herself, dies in Ani's arms looked on by Kijima. 

For a film that has it's roots in the 1950 feature film 'D.O.A' and then again in 1988 under the same name, there is very little that is new here in terms of the plot, except that the location has changed from California to modern day Japan, the chase and fight sequences are way more intense, the bad guys are considerably more disposable and the language is a lot more colourful. The staged action sequences are impressive thanks to the pedigree of Nicolas-Troyan on Director duty and Leitch serving as Producer and the cast are on top form - most notably Winstead who proves her action heroine acting chops, Harrelson is always watchable and newcomer Miku Martineau in her feature film debut and in only her third screen outing is surprisingly gifted. Aside from these positives, the film is predictable in its premise, is formulaic in its approach to the now often seen fight scenes and offers up nothing new that you haven't seen countless times before. It's not a bad movie but it's also not that great either, and if you enjoy your female assassins getting stabbed, punched, kicked, shot, bruised, battered, bloodied and barfing as she rapidly deteriorates from the inside as well but still managing to ably dispense with an army of yakuza no good bad dude types, then this movie is for you. 

'Kate' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE HUNTSMAN - WINTER'S WAR : Tuesday 12th April 2016.

THE HUNTSMAN : WINTER'S WAR which I saw in the week, is the sequel to the 2012 movie 'Snow White and the Huntsman' which off the back of its US$170M budget made US$397M. Directed by first timer Cedric Nicolas-Troyan who was the VFX specialist on the first film, and filmed in England, this next instalment was released in the UK on 4th April and opens in the US on 22nd April, and has so far made US$19M off its US$115M budget.

Here we see a number of characters from that earlier instalment reprising their roles including Chris Hemsworth as Eric, the Huntsman; Charlize Theron as Ravenna, the Evil Queen; Nick Frost as Nion a Dwarf; and Sam Claflin as King William. This time joined by Emily Blunt as Freya, the Ice Queen and sister of Ravenna, Rob Brydon as dwarf Gryff and half-brother of Nion, and Jessica Chastain as Sara, a warrior and wife of Eric.

As the film opens we are taken back to time before the death of Raveena at the hands of Snow White, where the Evil Queen learns from the magic mirror that her sister Freya is pregnant with a daughter, and that in time that child's beauty will outshine her own. The mirror also warns of dire repurcussions if that child is harmed in any way. Later as Freya and her lover The Duke of Blackwood plan their escape from Raveena's evil shadow, Freya learns that in fact her lover has murdered their child in its cot, and in her rage she unleashes her hitherto dormant cryokinetic power and kills the Duke. Mourning her loss and vowing to never love again, she abandons her sister and moves to the remote North and builds herself an ice palace and establishes her own kingdom that she can rule over. In time she builds an army of children that she can nurture and train to become skilled huntsman and women, and instills in them all the need to turn their back on love for fear of death by her own hand should anyone betray her wishes. In the meantime, she provides food, clothing, shelter and two particular apt children prove to be her star pupils - Eric and Sara who grow up to be Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain. They fall in love as they reach adulthood much to the disdain of the Ice Queen, who unleashes her wrath on them both - killing Sara and injuring Eric and throwing him into a fast flowing icy river to be washed down stream presumed dead.

We now fast forward seven years, and Raveena is dead killed by Snow White who now rules over the kingdom. But recently Snow White has come under the spell of the magic mirror and its dark powerful force, and so a plan was hatched to remove the mirror to a forest 'Sanctuary' where its powers can be contained. Eric is tracked down by King William and two accompanying dwarves, Nion and Gryff, who recount the tale of woe to the Huntsman and state that only he can retrieve the mirror that disappeared while en route to its final destination at the Sanctuary. Upon orders from Snow White, Eric agrees that the mirror cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands and so the search begins with Nion and Gryff in tow, believing that Freya may be after the mirror to harness its power for her own purposes and to expand her kingdom ultimately.

Upon their journey to retrieve the mirror the trio rest up in a local hostelry where a brawl breaks out involving other Huntsmen who recognise Eric from years before when he broke the law by falling in love. As the brawl escalates outside, Eric is aided by a mystery person who fends off the other Huntsmen and they retreat on horseback. That rescuer is Sara, believed to be long dead, but not so - Eric can hardly believe his eyes, but each have a different explanation for their separation having been bewitched by Freya into thinking that Sara had been killed and Eric fled to save his own bacon - each has a conflicting memory of those events.

With Sara now joining the hunt for the magic mirror, the four fall into the hands of two female dwarves Bromwyn (Sheridan Smith) and Doreena (Alexandra Roach) who take them prisoner but agree to release them if they be allowed to join their quest and share in the spoils. They know of a place where the goblins take their valuable treasures that is close to the Sanctuary, but is heavily forested and those that venture in, never venture out. The get in easily enough but getting out is more tricky when marauding goblins descend to thwart their plan to retrieve the mirror. But of course they prevail and the mirror makes it out, covered up to hide its powers and prevent anyone gazing up on it.

The next morning, having slept in an enchanted forest glen and Eric and Sara have reconciled their differences, the group are descended upon by Freya and her army who take the mirror back to the Ice Kingdom, and in the process freeze to the spot Nion and Doreena who by now have started to get acquainted in a dwarf kinda way! Sara retreats with Freya back to the Ice Kingdom having been ordered by Freya to kill Eric - to which she promptly shoots an arrow directly into his chest.

Needless to say, our hero survives and vows to retrieve the mirror and his one true love from Freya and her Ice Kingdom. And so Eric, Gryff and Bromwyn make their way through the frozen wasteland to the mountainous Ice Kingdom, with not much of a plan, but a whole lot of determination and bravado. At the same time Freya reactivates the mirror by reading aloud the inscription along its edge so releasing Raveena who upon her death possessed herself spiritually into the mirror awaiting the day for her to be released. And so she is, having regained her form she is reunited with her sister but has designs of her own on who now should rule over the Ice Kingdom. As the sisters argue with each other over who should reign supreme and to what end, Freya learns that her sister cursed The Duke of Blackwood to kill her child. Eric, Gryff and Bromwyn are captured and at the point of Eric's execution, a number of other Huntsmen whom Eric grew up with up, turn against Raveena and Freya and attempt to kill them both. In her rage, Freya turns against her sister, and using her powers freezes the mirror, at which Eric then throws his axe so breaking the mirror into a thousand pieces and destroying Raveena's spirit. Eric and Sara are reunited, and you guessed it - live happily ever after!

In the final analysis this is everything you would expect it to be, and nothing more. The storyline is inventive enough, the casting is strong with the additions of Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt, there is sufficient action to maintain the pace, the dwarves add just the right amount of humour along the way and in the end don't forget that this is an early 19th Century children's fairytale updated for a 21st Century audience. It's worth a look, just don't have too high an expectation.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-