By Robert Scucci
| Published 28 seconds ago
Ever since John Wick started John Wicking, “John Wick” has basically become its own action subgenre. If you hear anybody say something is “like John Wick,” you can expect a lone assassin who can effortlessly level rooms full of henchmen with reckless abandon, never run out of bullets, and be fueled by some sort of revenge arc that lets them tap into near-superhuman abilities.
Netflix’s Kate (2021) is one of those movies. There’s not much plot to it, but the action is highly stylized and expertly choreographed, and your brain turns smooth as you watch countless bodies drop by gun, sword, or hand.
One Last Job? Yeah, Right!
Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is a highly skilled assassin who was raised and trained to be a ruthless killing machine by her handler, Varrick (Woody Harrelson). Despite the nature of her work, Kate has a strict moral code, meaning she refuses to carry out hits when children are present. After one job forces her to violate her own ethics, Kate tells Varrick she’s ready to hang it up after one last assignment.
While lying low at a hotel, Kate has a one-night stand with a man named Stephen (Michiel Huisman), which proves to be a fatal mistake. As luck would have it, the wine Kate shared with Stephen was dosed with Polonium-204, giving her a rare form of radiation poisoning that leaves her with 24 hours to live. Borrowing from the Crank (2006) playbook, Kate gets hopped up on an alarming amount of injectable stimulants, vowing to track down whoever put Stephen up to poisoning her.
From this point forward, Kate doesn’t mess around. She has reason to believe the yakuza syndicate she’s previously targeted is behind her incurable countdown, but she has yet to figure out how deep it all goes. Along the way, she befriends Ani (Miku Martineau), who just so happens to be the niece of Kijima (Jun Kunimura), the yakuza boss who has a personal vendetta against Kate.
As you’d expect in this kind of John Wick-style movie, calculating the body count is nearly impossible. There’s so much collateral damage you’d need to watch at half speed to properly clock the carnage. The blood splatter leans into Kill Bill territory, but it’s more grounded than full-on comic book excess. Wounds don’t spray like geysers, but any fight scene set in an all-white room delivers more than enough splatter to satisfy your craving for cinematic violence. The neon-drenched city backdrop makes any chase sequence stand out and jump off the screen during those moments where there’s no combat, but the night is still dangerous.
By Now Standard Fare, But Executed To Perfection
If you’ve seen any John Wick movie, Atomic Blonde, Kill Bill, Monkey Man, or the Nobody films, you already know what you’re getting with Kate. That’s not a knock. These movies don’t offer much nuance on the plot front, but they’re a blast to watch. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is an absolute beast here, and even though she wasn’t previously on my radar, she is now. She knows exactly how to handle a revenge arc with the right amount of attitude.
Kate starts with a moral code, but all of that goes out the window once her countdown begins. From that point on, it’s game over, and Winstead sells it every step of the way.
Kate doesn’t reinvent the ultra-violent action thriller wheel, but it’s a damn good wheel. It’s one you can take for a spin on Netflix the next time you want to watch a dangerous babe throw down, kick ass, and take names.
