Popular reviews

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  Review by crimsen 泓 ★★★ 1

  who cares about the plot when the film already mocks its similarity to The Man from Nowhere. with some smooth action choreography, it's pretty entertaining to enjoy watching jang hyuk acting cool all the time while leisurely killing bad guys.

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  Review by More_Badass ★★★½ 3

  Takes some guts to call your action movie The Killer, and Choi Jae-Hoon’s latest is nowhere on the level of the unrelated classic that shares its name. Still has enough stylish killing, antihero cool, and heightened atmosphere to compensate for a shallow, hollow plot between the good stuff. 

  Jang Hyuk and Choi Jae-Hoon effectively evolve the flowing swordfights of their last collaboration into battles with silenced pistols and ballistic knives. Retired assassin Ui-gang has to babysit his wife’s friend’s daughter Yoon-ji, which would make for a fun comedy if a trafficking ring didn’t immediately snatch the teen. Yup, it’s that kind of movie - insert any modern “ex-badass uses special set of skills for personal mission” story - and now a…

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  Review by Flynch ★★★ 4

  Irgendwann wirds halt mal langweilig.
  Ein wenig von dort, ein bißchen mehr von hier, alles schon hundertmal durchgekaut und der nächste Taken/John Wick/usw-Verschnitt steht in den Startlöchern.
  Das Ganze wird dann noch umso ärgerlicher, weil der „ich bin ein unbesiegbarer Superkiller“ -Streifen sehr gut gemacht ist und der Hauptdarsteller eine große Portion Charme versprüht.
  Aber nach dem hundertsten Kopfschuss wird es doch ein bißchen langweilig, aber wenigsten kann der Typ sich bewegen und bringt beim Gefecht ein klein wenig Gun-Fu ins Spiel.
  Egal, die FSK18 ist gerechtfertigt und das ist für viele schon die halbe Miete.
  Ein gar nicht schlechter Streifen, aber ich hab mich halt auch schon satt gesehen, an den ganzen Unbesiegbaren mit all ihrer Coolness inkl. (CGI)Blutspritzern.
  Aber immerhin, konsequent ist er, der Bursch.

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  Review by Justin Decloux ★★★

  Holy Moly! A South Korean film that's 95 minutes long. I didn't think those existed. A retired killer is forced to babysit a feisty teenager, and when she gets kidnapped, he murders a lot of people.

  JOHN WICKSPLOITATION by way of MAN FROM NOWHERESPLOITATION (which the film cheekily references by name) that's well-shot but never becomes appropriately exciting. There's some decent one-take action, but almost every set-piece is borrowed from somewhere else, and while I was happy to see a fun close-quarter gunfight in the climax, I can't say I ever went "WOW!"

  The one distinct element is that the titular killer brutally murders everyone he meets - especially if they're unarmed or unconscious. Films like JOHN WICK give you…

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  Review by HKFanatic ★★★★ 4

  If you're looking for a Korean action/thriller that's willing to innovate in the genre, "The Killer" ain't it; director Jae-hoon Choi is very content to work in the shadows of those who came before: not only is the title lifted from John Woo's 1989 classic, but "The Man from Nowhere"—one of the landmarks of this kind of film—and its leading man Won Bin get mentioned by name here. So if you're feeling weary of movies about perfectly-coiffed Korean actors in tailored black suits dispatching hallways full of bad guys, this will not change your mind; for the rest of us, "The Killer" is a damn entertaining entry in the genre. (And this might be the first Korean film I've seen…

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  Review by Mihael ★★★

  Korean John Wick

  It provides us with quite good and creative action, which is excellently filmed, through good choreography of the fight scenes. The story is quite simple, but I think it is unnecessarily complicated, so we get quite good, but not convincing enough twists in the story. The effects, especially the sound effects, were very well adapted to the combat sequences. The cinematography can be very good at times, and through the great visualization the whole action looks very beautiful.

  Thanks to the main protagonist, we got a very good choreography, of all the stunts, and especially the combat movements, that he does. This is certainly a good revenge action thriller, chasing justice and destroying crime.

  My Rating: 6/10

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  Review by BennyMzn ★★½ 2

  Kurzkritik

  Ui-Kang, der coolste Killer den man sich vorstellen kann, schießt und prügelt sich durch Horden grenzdebiler Vollpfosten, von denen im gesamten Film, gerade mal ein einziger unserem Protagonisten standhalten kann. The Killer ist eine 08/15 Abziehschablone diverser Rache- und Selbstjustizthriller. Storytechnisch gibt's also nichts überraschendes oder innovatives zu erwarten. Die Action ist, bis auf CGI-Blutfontänen, handgemacht und ordentlich anzusehen. Irgendwann ist es halt ermüdend, die x-te Sequenz zu sehen in der Ui-Kang nichts zu tun hat, weil er einfach immer übermächtig ist. Als Genrefan kann man sich das durchaus mal geben aber in ein paar Tagen wird er wohl wieder in vergessen geraten sein.

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  Review by Sean Gilman ★★★½

  (Author Lee Child says that) he wanted to make Reacher not a flawed protagonist, haunted by addiction or trauma or moral grayness, not a guy who loses over and over again until he somehow, barely, wins in the end, but rather the biggest, strongest, smartest, most capable person in every situation. He figured that audiences would grow tired of relatable heroes, that we’d much more enjoy seeing the forces of evil get what’s coming to them by a larger than life (literally), hero. I thought about that a lot while watching The Killer, the latest action thriller from Korean star Jang Hyuk.

  Review at Seattle Screen Scene.

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  Review by Toastshake ★★★

  The Killer is when you take the boilerplate "taken" plot, replace an aging Liam Neeson's ex-CIA agent with a cold-hearted antihero that behaves like an unstoppable force of nature, akin to Anton Chigurh, that goes on a bloody rampage throughout South Korea to find a kidnapped girl, and discover the conspiracy behind her kidnapping plot. While it excels with its action choreography that's easy to follow and understand, not to mention gun-fu that would make that animated Resident Evil movie blush, it, unfortunately, lacks in conjuring strong emotion about its characters despite being set against the grim subject matter of sex trafficking. It's violent, stylish, and should hold your attention for its truncated runtime.

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  Review by More_Badass ★★★½

  Perhaps the purest post-Taken post-Wick unstoppable-badass-kills-em’-all romp of them all. Whatever thin plot is present exists merely as a ladder up trafficking ring rungs, from bratty teen recruiters to corrupt bankrollers, for Jang Hyuk to nonchalantly slaughter with sharply choreographed style. A mindlessly awesome South Korean blast that shows just how much the country’s film output has become the modern equivalent of ‘80s/‘90s Hong Kong pumping out sleek sturdy popcorn.

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  Review by Lorenzo ★★★½

  After watching The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves To Die , your first instinct will be to compare it with John Wick films or it's namesake from Hong Kong (not an adaptation). In reality, the film was adapted from a webtoon called The Kid Deserves to Die. The film also tells you, based on a comment made by one of its characters, that the 2010 Korean action film The Man from Nowhere may have been an inspiration too.

  The Killer employs stylized action sequences that seems to fall in line with the John Wick films and its use of the Gun-Fu moves and effects. There's a sequence in a building entrance and hallway involving knifes, hatchets and guns that will…

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  Review by deMicha ★★

  Someone deserves to die

  Auftagskiller Ui-Gang Bang soll auf die 17-Jährige Yoon-Ji aufpassen. Diese gerät mit Mädchenhändlern in kontakt. Zeit für Ui-Gang die Waffen durchzuladen unf aufzuräumen.

  Südkoreanischer Action-Film aus dem Jahr 2022.
  Er hat mich unterhalten, mehr aber auch nicht. Die Handlung mit ihren Charakteren hat keine Überraschungen parat, da man hier nicht versuchte was neues einzubringen.
  Der Hauptcharaktere hat eine extra Portion Coolnes zum Frühstück gegessen und dabei noch den "Unschlagbar" Cheat Code aktiviert. Die Action/Fights sind gut umgesetzt. Wie er sich durch seine Gegner metzelt, sieht gut aus, hat aber irgendwann auch den Reiz verloren. Ernstzunehmende Gegner scheint es hier für ihn nicht zu geben, bis auf eine Ausnahme.
  Für Genres Fan's einen blick wert.