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On the Netflix screen for “Kate,” the description says “this movie is Violent, Exciting.” That first adjective is quite accurate—this film is wall-to-wall carnage. I must respectfully disagree with that second adjective, however, unless you enjoy watching someone else play an uninvolving video game for almost two hours. If this type of thing turns you on, please have at it. There’s a cynical air to the lackluster proceedings, as if the filmmakers assume you’ll stumble across “Kate” and watch it simply because it’s there and you’re too lazy to scroll down the screen for something better. That appears to be Netflix’s rationale for their mid-budget actioners, and it can provide much satisfaction if there’s a good story welded to the set-pieces. But Umair Aleem ’s script is so paint-by-numbers familiar that it leaves you wishing you’d watched one of the better movies it’s ripping off. I believe Netflix also carries several of those.

After her superb and memorable turn in “Birds of Prey,” Mary Elizabeth Winstead is handed the reins of her own action movie. Winstead is not only a very credible agent of violence, she also provides interesting approaches to her scenes. There’s something off-kilter and unique about her, something you can’t quite put your finger on, yet you feel its presence. I find her compulsively watchable, which is why I found this dreck so aggravating. She’s clearly having fun here, but she deserves better than the warmed-over plot details every single female assassin movie must contain. The assassin is always a lone wolf, deserted by family before being adopted by a male authority figure who trains and mentors her before ultimately becoming some form of adversary she must deal with against her will.

Here, the male mentor is phoned in by Woody Harrelson . And I don’t mean that just figuratively—80% of his performance is literally on the phone. If you look closely into his eyes, you can see the ATM where he deposited the check from this movie. Harrison’s Varrick is the handler for Winstead’s titular character, the one person Kate trusts. When the film opens, she’s in Osaka, Japan on an assignment that predictably goes awry. Despite the rules against shooting people with children present, Kate takes a shot that takes out her target in front of his kid. Fast-forward to Kate’s “last mission,” where she’ll eventually team up with a rambunctious teenager named Ani (Miku Patricia Martineau). Guess what her connection is to that prior execution?

Before we get to Ani, Kate engages in rumpy-pumpy with a guy who fatally poisons her with something that will kill her in 24 hours. She’ll not only need to find out why she’s been murdered, but she’ll also need to avenge her own death. The only thing that keeps her going is hourly shots of adrenaline. So, we’ve got an injection of “D.O.A.” here (the hideous '80s remake, that is, not the original). In addition to the gruesome external wounds and scars Kate will endure battling countless adversaries, the poison is quickly rotting her from the inside out. Numerous scenes of barfing ensue, as well as some teeth falling out and blood pouring out of unwelcome places unprovoked. This adds a healthy dash of “The Fly” to the proceedings (the awesome '80s remake, that is, not the original).

I dug the body horror and how Winstead rolls with it. It gives Kate a physical vulnerability that wages war with the genre’s insistence that its protagonists are crack shots while their competition can’t hit the side of a barn. It’s when “Kate” tries for emotional vulnerability that it fails. Ani is kidnapped by Kate because she’s a relative of Kijima ( Jun Kunimura ), the man who may have ordered the poisonous hit. Flashbacks draw parallels between Ani and her kidnapper, and after it appears Ani’s family wants to kill her, Kate drags her along on her quest. Martineau does her best playing a rebellious teenager whose tough exterior masks a scared kid, but the script gives the two actors the barest minimum of bonds to play. It’s far more superficial than moving.

Ani keeps referring to Kate as “a Terminator,” but this movie owes a lot more to Ah-nuld’s '80 classic, “Commando,” especially when Kate has to save her ward from the bad guys. Mark Lester handled Schwarzenegger mowing down an entire military with a much lighter and more entertaining touch than director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan does here. He depicts violence in joyless and monotonous fashion. There are only so many ways bullets can enter heads and torsos, and while I enjoy the majority of those ways, it gets real tired real fast here.

“Kate” also wants to be as cool as the Asian action movies it seeks to emulate with a White lead, but the end result fetishizes Asian culture and Japan with the embarrassing fervor of a horny dog humping a leg. The overdone effect is too hilarious and embarrassing to be offensive, but it is cringe-inducing. A major death scene is highlighted by a gigantic, smiling and waving neon kitty cat. J-Pop blares on the soundtrack while Kate strolls toward the camera flanked by Yakuza hitmen. There’s even a gay adversary who is introduced getting a fish pedicure before unveiling a back covered in letter tattoos. The camera ogles him like he’s some exotic object before he preens and sways while battling Kate. He quickly meets one of the most gruesome demises offered up as red meat to a bloodthirsty audience, which is a shame as he’s more interesting than any of the main villains. In a film as dully derivative as this, I’ll take my pleasures where I can.

On Netflix today.

Odie Henderson

Odie "Odienator" Henderson has spent over 33 years working in Information Technology. He runs the blogs Big Media Vandalism and Tales of Odienary Madness. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire  here .

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Film credits.

Kate (2021)

Rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout.

106 minutes

Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Kate

Miku Martineau as Ani

Woody Harrelson as Varrick

Tadanobu Asano as Renji

Michiel Huisman as Stephen

Jun Kunimura as Kjima

Miyavi as Jojima

Amelia Crouch as Teen Kate

Ava Caryofyllis as Child Kate

• Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
• Umair Aleem

Cinematographer

• Lyle Vincent
• Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir
• Sandra Montiel
• Nathan Barr

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‘Kate’ Review: Lost in Assassination

Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays a vengeful contract killer in this predictable thriller.

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By Teo Bugbee

The thriller “Kate” is an undistinguished action film that makes a hero of a hit woman. Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), guided by her wily handler, Varrick (Woody Harrelson), has been a professional since adolescence. Her only rule is to never kill in front of a child. Naturally — this being a relatively unimaginative plot — Kate betrays her principles within the first five minutes of the movie, murdering a yakuza gang member in front of his daughter.

The fallout for Kate proves worse than a mere breach of assassin’s creed. She learns that her victim’s gang has targeted her, slipping her a fatal dose of polonium. She has 24 hours to live before radiation destroys her body, and in that time, she is determined to get her revenge. But the only person who knows where she can find the shadowy leader of the gang that wants her dead is Ani (Miku Martineau), the child who witnessed her father’s slaughter.

The film takes place in Japan, and the director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan tries to use the setting to inject a shot of style into the largely routine story. There are neon cars, Kabuki theater performances and as many murders committed with samurai swords and katanas as there are with guns. The movie presents an eye-catching fantasy of a candy-colored Japanese underworld. But the exoticism feels as cheap as a whiff of a green tea and musk cologne called Tokyo wafting over a department store counter. Even Winstead, stoic in her fashionably boyish haircut, looks bored.

Kate Rated R for graphic violence, brief gore, and brief sexuality. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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Review: ‘Kate’ in spades — Mary Elizabeth Winstead wants revenge

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“Kate” is a revenge movie with a dying assassin as its lead. Now you know most of the story.

As the titular killer stationed in Japan, Mary Elizabeth Winstead kicks ass on an order of magnitude above her work as Huntress in the underrated “ Birds of Prey ” (heaven forbid the DCEU make an actually fun movie — and how can audiences not support “ The Suicide Squad ”? — but I digress) .

Easygoin’ Kate has a cute interaction with fatherly handler Varrick ( Woody Harrelson ) before executing a messy hit that splatters young Ani (Miku Martineau) with bits of Ani’s dad. Months later, Kate is slipped a slow-acting poison that gives her about 24 hours to kill the folks who targeted her.

Don’t ask why they slipped the Deadliest Woman Alive a slow-acting poison, or if that were their thing, why they didn’t lock themselves down for a night while she kicked the bucket.

There are few surprising moments. There’s a template to be followed and “ Kate ” does so, like clockwork. There are the scheduled betrayals, plus the customary reluctant closeness between Kate and Ani.

Not much energy is invested in dialogue or character development. The obligatory flashbacks to Kate’s formative years as a hit woman trainee fail to explore her interior world. A deeper gaze might have lent pathos not only to her, but her relationship with Ani.

Those concerns aren’t high priorities. This is an 87North production, spawned by folks behind “ John Wick ” and “ Atomic Blonde ,” so it’s a form-over-substance exercise. And that’s OK. Just be grateful “Kate” doesn’t seem to belong to the burgeoning Wickipedia , thus isn’t weighed down by its increasingly burdensome pretensions.

“Kate” has its charms. Martineau brings the right amount of sass to Ani. Director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (an Oscar nominee for the VFX of “ Snow White and the Huntsman ”) achieves a slick, neon-nightmare Tokyo with the considerable help of Lyle Vincent’s impressive cinematography and Dominic Watkins’ immersive production design. As required, Jonathan Eusebio’s stunt coordination is top notch.

One of its most entertaining duels to the death is an elegantly choreographed face off between yakuza higher-ups. However, the standout fight is between Kate and a dude who looks like a boy band member who’s also a yakuza enforcer . The actor, Miyavi , is a Japanese singer-songwriter , producer and absolutely ripping guitarist . Evidently, he can also act and fight. He should definitely make more American movies .

Speaking of which, Tadanobu Asano feels wasted in an underdeveloped yakuza-boss role; this guy is really good and deserves better (American audiences know him from the “ Thor ” movies; he was flat-out great in the criminally underseen “ Last Life in the Universe ”).

That said, if you’re signing up for an assassin revenge movie with Winstead entertainingly kicking ass, you’re going to get one.

'Kate'

Rated: R for strong bloody violence and language throughout Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes Playing: Available Sept. 10 on Netflix

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Kate review – stylish Netflix assassin thriller just about does the job

Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays a killer with 24 hours to live in a familiarly plotted yet diverting enough Japan-set thriller

T here’s nothing particularly inventive about the Netflix action thriller Kate – from the director of The Huntsman: Winter’s War, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan – the streamer’s umpteenth bullets over brains offering this year, but there’s also nothing particularly heinous in its execution, a to-the-point two-hour slab of pulp that slickly glides above a very low bar. The platform’s flatly directed, often incompetently choreographed churn of action content has meant that a sudden whiff of style and a glimpse of an actual location suddenly jolts one from a drift of sleep to a mild amount of attention.

That’s just about the amount that this deserves, a serviceable Friday night choice that gets the job done just fine, enough to turn it into a hit for the streamer (the far less convincing Jason Momoa actioner Sweet Girl skirted around their top 10 for much longer than deserved) but not quite enough to insist that anyone actually bothers to make time for it, unless drunk or out of all other options. It’s cobbled together from so many familiar ingredients that I was surprised to find out that an actual human (Umair Aleem) wrote it rather than some sort of computer and even viewers with a vague knowledge of the assassin subgenre will feel a suffocating sense of deja vu from the cold open onwards.

It’s Osaka and trained killer Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is prepping for a job accompanied by her boss, mentor and father figure Varrick (Woody Harrelson). But as her mark gets into view, she sees that his daughter is by his side, her “no kids” rule stopping her from making a clean shot. She’s urged to pull the trigger, though, and 10 months later, finds herself still quietly haunted by what she did. It’s time to quit but on her last job, Kate is given irreversible radiation poisoning and has just 24 hours to figure out who wants her dead and why.

The quest reunites her with the girl she orphaned (because of course) which lumbers the film with an age-old trope of the cold-blooded killer who warms around the presence of a child. It’s a particularly frustrating way used by mostly male screenwriters to humanise female killers, also used recently in Netflix’s other neon-hued assassin film of the summer Gunpowder Milkshake , as if strong-willed women need to be reminded of their maternal instincts. Kate is told that she is less a person and more of an instrument and despite Winstead trying her very best, that’s far too true of the character, even by the finale, who does little more than point and shoot. The attempts to show that she does actually have some individualism and distinguishability are too mild (she likes lemon soda) and too rote (she stares at kids sometimes because ovaries) and so despite the film being named after her character, Kate is utterly anonymous.

The film around her is at least a tad more realised, directed with a rambunctious energy and while Nicolas-Troyan’s influences are worn on his sleeves and entire outfit as a whole, he’s able to give Kate that much-needed boost that makes it into a real movie rather than a Netflix movie. There’s a wild, kinetic car chase and some nifty, gory fight scenes and a real sense of place, utilising the ability to actually shoot on location (remember, low bar). The 24 hours to die gimmick is of course nothing new (it recalls both 1950’s DOA and its 80s remake as well as countless copycats) but the radiation touch is at least an effectively gnarly update as Kate’s body slowly disintegrates over the course of the movie. It does of course make her superhuman fighting abilities a little bit harder to believe as her condition worsens (epipens can only do so much against polonium) but it’s clear from the outset that we’re not headed towards a happy ending.

When the last act strikes, Aleem isn’t able to find a way to reveal the twisty, if predictably so, plot with much finesse and so we’re stuck with a laughable exposition dump between two nefarious characters each telling us things they already know. Winstead maintains our attention, though, as she limps to some sort of retribution, as pointless as it might be with death a few cough-ups of blood away, her punches continuing to land with more impact than any eye-rolling attempts at profundity do. There will be more action thrillers like Kate on the way to Netflix (both Jennifer Lopez and Jessica Alba have similar films coming) but here’s hoping, and praying, that this level of basic competency can be matched with a bit more personality in the future.

Kate is available on Netflix on 10 September

• Action and adventure films
• Woody Harrelson

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A jaded assassin assigned to target a yakuza clan has 24 hours to find out who poisoned her and get vengeance before she dies. A jaded assassin assigned to target a yakuza clan has 24 hours to find out who poisoned her and get vengeance before she dies. A jaded assassin assigned to target a yakuza clan has 24 hours to find out who poisoned her and get vengeance before she dies.

• Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
• Umair Aleem
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead
• Woody Harrelson
• Miku Martineau
• 619 User reviews
• 135 Critic reviews
• 47 Metascore
• 1 nomination

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• Trivia Members of Japanese all-female hard rock group BAND-MAID appear in the movie as themselves.
• Goofs Kate is poisoned by Polonium-204, which the movie seems to suggest is more deadly than Polonium-210 (the more common isotope), but this is wrong. Polonium-210 is an alpha-particle emitter, while Polonium-204 is a beta emitter. Alpha particles (helium nuclei) are far more destructive inside the human body than beta particles (electrons). Kate would probably have survived Polonium-204 poisoning, but not Polonium-210.

Kijima : Death is the time for beginnings.

• Connections Features Uchu kara no messeji: Ginga taisen (1978)
• Soundtracks Vanilla Kyujin' Theme Song Written by Sawada Masataka Courtesy of Axis Design

User reviews 619

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• Oct 27, 2021
• How long is Kate? Powered by Alexa
• September 10, 2021 (United States)
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• Nữ Sát Thủ Kate
• Tokyo, Japan
• Clubhouse Pictures (II)
• Screen Arcade
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $25,000,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 46 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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‘Kate’ Review: A Dying Assassin Fills Her Bucket List With Blood

Mary Elizabeth Winstead slashes through Tokyo in a kooky yet predictable vengeance flick

By Amy Nicholson

Amy Nicholson

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“You’re a Terminator,” Tokyo teen Ani (Miku Patricia Martineau) gapes to Kate ( Mary Elizabeth Winstead ) after witnessing the bloodshed her kidnapper has brought down on two dozen yakuza now lying shot, stabbed, sizzled on a yakitori grill and very, very dead. Kate, the titular antihero of director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan ’s vicious vengeance flick, is a grown-up child assassin trained by her mentor (Woody Harrelson) in the art of death, a fate so common among on-screen orphans that their support group could fill a church basement. Yes, she can rack up quite the Schwarzenegger-esque kill count. But Kate’s Terminator resemblance also includes her left eye’s red and distended pupil, evidence of the polonium poisoning that will kill her in 24 hours. Other symptoms of this gimmick include blistered skin, pounding eardrums, wobbly knees and an urgency to take an entire gangster clan along with her to the grave. There is no cure. There is only carnage — and to his credit, Nicolas-Troyan (“The Huntsman: Winter’s War”) keeps the hits coming.

Kate is introduced on the most traumatic day of her job. She pulls up to an assignment in a dessert van — an unnecessarily cutesy touch — and finds she’s expected to snipe her target in front of his daughter, Ani. This goes against her only rule. But she pulls the trigger anyway and watches in slow-motion horror as the man’s blood spatters the girl’s face and coat, a carnation pink that recalls the moment Jackie O. went from style icon to tragic victim.

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It’s a strong opening for a breed of action spectacle where audiences can map out the twists like they’ve been handed a Thomas Guide. The script by Umair Aleem is little more than a framework for the only two elements that matter: the fight choreography — quite good, courtesy of “John Wick’s” Jonathan Eusebio — and the wavelength of the star, which has come to mean everything. Often, a female actor in these grindhouse actioners adopts a stoic dreariness meant to pass for a gives-as-good-as-she-gets empowerment, as if anything so fanciful as a personality is a sign of weakness.

Winstead, however, chooses to play Kate as a human being — not some femmebot executioner dressed in latex or pigtails. She wears hoodies and, only somewhat cloyingly, a smiley face shirt purchased from a vending machine when her gear gets covered in gore. There’s life in her eyes and exhaustion in her gait. Winstead makes you believe, however improbably, that if a woman like Kate actually existed outside a screenwriter’s imagination, she wouldn’t be far off from this portrayal: isolated, mule-headed and ready for a change. But just as Kate decides to shake up her life, a handsome stranger slips a radioactive toxin into her wine glass and she’s forced back into making silencers out of convenience store flashlights and stabbing people through their soft palate.

Winstead’s naturalistic performance butts heads with the film’s exaggerated style. Nicolas-Troyan’s Tokyo is a fantasy land. The first aerial shot of the city is of Tokyo Tower, an Eiffel Tower clone seemingly designed to disorient tourists. This Tokyo is all goofball caricatures. Yakuza steam themselves like dumplings. J-pop singers dance in French maid outfits. Cars are outlined in neon like they sped out of Mario Kart. A penthouse has its very own bucket of suckerfish that nibble on a gangster moll’s pedicure, a distracting home-decor touch that leaves one nervous it could get kicked over on the way to the fridge for a midnight snack. When the regal Japanese star Jun Kunimura (“Kill Bill”), here playing the heavyweight boss at the center of the havoc, takes a swipe at Westerners who “gorge on cultures they don’t understand,” the line sounds more pointed than Nicolas-Troyan might have intended.

Lyle Vincent’s cinematography leans into the cartoon aesthetics. The standout action sequence takes place at an underworld social club where all the gangsters wear crisp black suits and glower in front of white rice-paper walls that double as panels in a comic book. The monochrome setting is an invitation for Kate to add a splash of color thanks to some artistic throat punctures, and the camera happily chases after her, whether she’s bursting through flimsy doors, leaping up fire escapes or in one nifty moment, bracing herself one story up in a narrow alley.

The body count becomes numbing. Yet Winstead’s Kate appears to weather the most damage. She’s no Teflon superhero, especially once the polonium kicks in and the soundtrack transitions from energetic Japanese pop to heavy taiga drums that remind us that Kate’s pulse is slowing down. Soon after, her path re-intersects with that of Ani, the traumatized teen from the opening, who’s now become visibly punk. The film tries to make the audience care about Kate’s possible redemption. More interesting, however, is the script’s hint that the teen is already a demi-sociopath. A bit when Ani takes a selfie with Kate’s unconscious body might have had more twisted humor on the page, but Martineau in her feature debut does well with a role that’s even more ludicrous than that of the leading lady.

It’s beyond obvious where this is going, that all this talk of family will sour into betrayal and eventually, a climax that postures as an emotional revelation. And it’s somewhat obvious to Nicolas-Troyan that the audience doesn’t really care. He just has to shoot enough stylish battles to get his film to the end credits, a quest for completion Kate herself would understand. “I’m dying,” she gasps. “I have to finish something .”

Reviewed online, Los Angeles, Sept. 1, 2021. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 106 MIN.

• Production: A Netflix presentation of an Eightyseven North Prods., Clubhouse Pictures production. Producers: David Leitch, Kelly McCormick, Patrick Newall, Bryan Unkeless. Co-producers: Michael Selby, Anthony J. Vorhies.
• Crew: Director: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. Screenplay: Umair Aleem. Camera: Lyle Vincent. Editors: Sandra Montiel, Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir. Music: Nathan Barr.
• With: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Woody Harrelson, Miku Patricia Martineau, Jun Kunimura

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Kate Reviews

Kate is a fun and schlocky revenge thriller that appears to be pretty slick, but the lacklustre story stops it from reaching true heights.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 27, 2023

It’s not a perfect story from beginning to end either. While these action sequences are entertaining and disturbing, Kate’s characterization and her relationship with Ani, and the result is predictable.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2023

Kate delivers everything I could ever ask of a hard-hitting revenge-driven action movie. With a badass lead, great chemistry, and action moments that left me flinching on multiple occasions, this movie is a must-watch for the action aficionados out there.

Full Review | Jan 16, 2023

Nicolas-Taylor’s film brings enough visual style, subtle dark wit, and breathtaking action to make Kate a satisfying action experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 9, 2022

Martineau is both sweet and furious as Kate's sidekick and wannabe apprentice.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 17, 2022

The dialogue is stale, the characters shallow, and every narrative development is wholly predictable and pedestrian.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Jun 5, 2022

Kate is a movie that nods to other, better movies, but which does enough to punch a hole in lockdown boredom.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 12, 2022

Despite some impressive fight choreography and tight pacing, we're reaching a saturation point with this kind of cinema. John Wick and Birds of Prey have set the bar high in recent years, and while Kate is playing in their ballpark, it isn't keeping up.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2022

It's got great fight choreography, wonderful performances from Winstead and Martineau, and a few clever twists, but ultimately the end of the movie left me wanting more.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 13, 2022

Temper your expectations and don't look for originality in this vehicle and you're very likely to enjoy the ride.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 15, 2021

A lean, sleek female-centric actioner from director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan that arrives with a bang, knocks your socks off for 90 minutes, and leaves you limp but weirdly invigorated.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Oct 15, 2021

The life expectancy for most of the unfortunate henchmen in Kate is instantly reduced to about a second or so once they run into the titular anti-hero of Cedric Nicolas-Troyan's ultra-slick, frenzied, hand-to-hand combat action ballet.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 15, 2021

It felt too rushed and Winstead didn't work for me.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 9, 2021

Winstead sells the carnage and keeps you invested in a screenplay that most film addicts can unfold in their heads during the first ten minutes. This is her action showcase.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Sep 30, 2021

A fun, fast-paced actioner

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 28, 2021

There's a lot of carnage and action, and Winstead fills the part well enough; it's just the uninspired script by Umair Aleem that saps any true enjoyment.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 24, 2021

Kate may seem like an ordinary lady killer flick, but sophomore director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan manages to tweak things enough to turn it into a crafty and entertaining movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Sep 23, 2021

A thoroughly unpleasant experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 21, 2021

"Kate" is smoothly pieced together, but it simply echoes too many of its ancestors to earn a place among them. It's probably best for fans of Winstead and of gnarly action.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Sep 20, 2021

Mary Elizabeth Winstead... has everything to become a future action heroine. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Sep 20, 2021

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Kate review: Mary Elizabeth Winstead leads Netflix's red-meat female assassin thriller

The world is full of yoga teachers and paralegals and mechanical engineers. It is less full, presumably, of female assassins. (If you've ever met one you either didn't know it, or you're dead.) And yet there has never been more of them in movies — cool-eyed executioners who slash and blast and burn their way across the screen, grinding the notion of a weaker sex beneath their boot heels and snuffing out lives like half-smoked cigarettes.

As the titular star of Kate (out Friday on Netflix), Fargo 's Mary Elizabeth Winstead is exactly that kind of killer: a stoic Jane Wick working in tandem with her handler (a blunt, cheerful Woody Harrelson ) to take out nefarious players in the Japanese underworld. She doesn't ask questions and she doesn't miss, but executing a man in front of his traumatized teenage daughter (Miku Martineau) does give her pause. And when a follow-up job goes wobbly she discovers that she's been poisoned, fatally. (This would all be a spoiler if it weren't handled so economically in the first 15 minutes.) That leaves approximately 24 hours to settle her business — and her business being what it is, there will be blood.

It's a feat that director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan ( The Huntsman: Winter's War ) manages to turn the movie's hoary One Last Job scenario into a thriller as lizard-brain satisfying as it is; his lens zips and dips across Tokyo, the city's bright neon chaos a kinetic backdrop to a series of increasingly baroque kills. (At one point, a murder also casually becomes a haircut.) Subtle it's not: Kate is red-meat storytelling, all broad outlines and crunched bones. But there's a visual wit and visceral energy to it that other recent efforts (the pop-feminist comic-book gloss Gunpowder Milkshake , also on Netflix, and Amazon Prime's spectacularly silly Jolt , featuring a rampaging Kate Beckinsale) struggle to find.

Aside from a brief interlude at a hotel bar (with The Flight Attendant 's Michiel Huisman ) and a few twitchy impulses of maternal feeling, Winstead's Kate is too tough, and then too far gone, to really develop much of a relationship with the audience aside from a few wry, biting one-liners; she's come to kill, or die trying. But the scattered bits that do come through are a reminder that the genre's best — Kill Bill and the original French La Femme Nikita ; the snappy 1996 Geena Davis vehicle The Long Kiss Goodnight and 2014's great, ludicrous Lucy , starring Scarlett Johansson — root their adrenalized set pieces in protagonists who actually seem to have inner lives, no matter how extreme. It's no mystery why we love to watch these women on screen: They're clever, ruthless, and ferociously capable in ways that the rest of us will never be, superheroes without the capes and moral obligations. And they don't need any man's permission to land. Grade: B

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Kate review: Netflix’s action-thriller is worth watching for one reason alone

Come for the gunfights, stay for the star.

You’ve seen movies like Kate before.

Netflix’s latest action-thriller, which premieres Friday, uses many of the same tropes that have littered the hitman subgenre for decades, and especially those ones that have become more common in the wake of John Wick ’s success.

Present and accounted for is a neon-lit international setting — in this case, Tokyo — and a seemingly indestructible protagonist, hell-bent on revenge. Kate doesn’t offer much besides that in terms of narrative surprises or filmmaking ingenuity, even leaning on the frustratingly cliché “last job gone wrong” set up to serve as its inciting incident.

But what Kate does have going for it is star Mary Elizabeth Winstead, one of the most charismatic and capable actresses of her generation. Unfortunately, Winstead has flown under the radar for most of her career; Kate , which gives the actress 106 minutes in the spotlight, should change that once and for all. And Winstead, to her credit, doesn’t let the opportunity pass her by.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the titular assassin in Netflix’s Kate.

Let’s say you’ve been poisoned and have 24 hours left to live: What do you do with your last day?

Most of us would probably opt to spend it with our families or do one thing we’ve spent years wanting to try. But if you’re Kate, you’re going to spend those precious final hours on a blood-soaked rampage, in search of the person who poisoned you.

Played in the film by a surprisingly ruthless and enraged Winstead, Kate is the last person you can imagine crossing. Armed with a desire for revenge, several doses of heavy painkillers, and a hankering for lemon soda, Kate sets out on a quest across Tokyo in search of the yakuza boss she believes sentenced her to death. It’s a simple premise, opening the door for Kate to follow its titular protagonist through an unending stream of gunfights, chases, and massacres.

The film, directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan ( The Huntsman: Winter’s War ) from a screenplay by Umair Aleem ( Extraction ), delivers on that promise, albeit to varying degrees of success. Indeed, while Winstead’s Kate approaches each of the film’s action sequences with equal ferocity, only a few set pieces stand out. That includes a fight at a Japanese restaurant/social club, which sees Kate single-handedly taking down an assortment of yakuza bosses and goons across a series of identical, black-and-white rooms and corridors.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead storms in, shades ready, in Kate.

It’s during this extended sequence that Kate is at its most thrilling, visually controlled, and inventive.

From long Steadicam tracking shots that follow Kate as she infiltrates the facility to aerial shots that pivot and whirl in time with Kate’s movements and spins, Nicolas-Troyan employs a number of unexpected camera angles and cutting techniques throughout, investing the scene with an energy and style that the rest of the film largely lacks.

All that said, it’s Winstead’s lead performance that ultimately lifts Kate out of total mediocrity. Coming off her recent, similarly dynamic and vengeful performance as The Huntress in last year’s Birds of Prey , Winstead proves her mettle as a legitimate action star with Kate . She invests in the character so heavily that it becomes impossible to look away from her performance, which becomes more layered and human as Kate’s body is ravaged by the poison slowly killing her.

This character is tired and angry — and for good reason — but Winstead never lets Kate become an emotionless killing machine. Be it through a small, shuddered breath or a perfectly timed scream of rage, the actress ensures that everything Kate does feels emotionally motivated and authentic, even when she’s firing bullets into the hundredth unlucky henchman sent her way.

It’s a muscular and charismatic performance, and undeniably the most interesting thing that Kate has to offer.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead prepares a mean haymaker in Kate.

Unfortunately, Kate invests far less heavily into the culture and history of its setting than it does the emotions of its killer protagonist. The film uses the city of Tokyo largely for its visual traits and charms, which makes one dignified character’s third-act remarks about Westerners gorging on “cultures they don’t understand” feel more like a pointed bit of self-criticism than Nicolas-Troyan and his collaborators likely intended.

The film works best as an enjoyable — if by-the-numbers — popcorn thriller. Its attempts at social commentary and emotional profundity fall flat, and the various twists and turns it takes should be easy to see coming for anyone who has seen more than a handful of action movies.

In most instances, such faults would sink a movie like Kate . But every time it looks like the film might succumb to its more formulaic, clichéd instincts, there’s Winstead at the ready, potent enough to lift it back up again.

Kate debuts Friday, September 10th on Netflix.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Kate; Woody Harrelson as Varrick; Miku Patricia Martineau as Ani; Jun Kunimura as Kijima; Tadanobu Asano as Renji

Home Release Date

• September 10, 2021
• Cedric Nicolas-Troyan

Distributor

Movie review.

Kate is a killer.

Yeah, you could say she has killer good looks, but she’s actually a straight-up killer. Trained by her mentor and father-figure, Varrick, she started in the assassination biz when she was just a young girl—right after her parents were both murdered—and has been going strong ever since.

Of course, now that she’s in her 30s, Kate’s kinda thinking that she’s been a part of this deadly circus a bit too long. She hasn’t had a life of her own. She’s been “managed” and “handled,” but never really lived. And after a recent Osaka, Japan, mission, involving a target with his daughter standing right next to him, Kate has finally made up her mind to leave.

Kate may be an assassin. But she’s always had one rule of her own. One simple rule: no kids! But now her handlers have pushed her to break that boundary. So, Kate’s quitting. She’s agreed to one last hit, but after that she’s out.

Varrick eyes her when she tells him of her plans and asks what she could possibly want from this “real life” she keeps talking about. “Family, kids, picket fence, dogs, suburbs?” he wonders. “Yeah, something like that,” she replies.

Before Kate can finish her job and follow through on her plans, however, something unexpected happens. After a casual fling with a guy she meets at her hotel bar, she ends up poisoned. But it’s not food poisoning or maybe a bottle of wine gone bad. No, she finds she’s suffering from accelerated ARS: acute radiation syndrome.

She’s somehow been targeted with Polonium 204, a radioactive substance that there’s no coming back from. And after she staggers up from unconsciousness, the hospital doc says she has about a day left to live. “But don’t worry,” he tells her. “We’ll make you as comfortable as possible.”

Kate isn’t worried about comfort, though. She wants answers. Was this poisoning a blowback from her last job? Is it a hit from another secretive organization? Something even more personal? She’s got 24 hours to find out who wants her dead and why. And she’s got 20-plus years of experience and skills to help her find and rip out every answer she wants.

When she finds what she needs, then someone—or a lot of someones —will die for what they’ve taken from her.

Kate wanted a real life. Now she’s going to dole out some bloody death.

Positive Elements

The one positive in this story of violence and death is the fact that Kate wants to embrace a happy and contented life. For her, that involves the possibility of settling down and having a family.

Kate later meets a teen girl named Ani who’s connected to the Kijima clan, a Yakuza gang that Kate’s trying to infiltrate. The two connect. Kate sees some part of the family she’s longed for in Ani. And Ani, in turn, sees Kate as a representation of the tough and resilient mother she never knew.

Kate also takes steps to protect Ani and to keep her separate from the violence that’s taking place. “You’re young. You have time to forget,” she tells the girl.

Spiritual Elements

Sexual content.

Kate hooks up with a guy she meets at a bar. They go back to her room to have sex. We see the two kissing, undressing and caressing on the bed before the camera cuts away. She’s wearing her underwear, and he’s shirtless.

There’s more male skin bared in this pic than female. Kate walks through a bathhouse filled with naked men, for instance. They’re covered only with loin cloths. Several other men in the film strip off shirts or robes to bare their upper bodies.

Violent Content

This film prides itself on its blood, gore and violence. Throughout the course of her encounters with large, angry Yakuza gang members, Kate gets pummeled with fists; battered with various weapons and solid objects; thrown, kicked, stabbed and shot over and over again.

Her physical form and features become more and more bloodied and torn after each successive conflict—including heavily bleeding scalp wounds; a bloody, pounded-out pupil; a wound in her cheek opened by slowly pressed-in scissor blades; and scores of nasty bruises and scars on her shoulders, arms and upper body. (She removes her bloody shirt, for instance, to stitch up an open knife wound on her waist, which reveals dark purple bruising all over her torso.)

On top of all that the radiation poisoning also impacts Kate, giving her nose bleeds and causing her to regularly spit up quantities of blood and bile.

The men Kate attacks, however, all receive the worst of it. We see throats vividly slashed and left gushing. Bullets blow out neks and heads. Swords impale and gut men. Heads are lopped off. Kate uses knifes to stab eyes, as well as  and jam up through chins and out noses.

We see a number of victims with their skulls split open by either bullets or heavy objects. Legs and arms are snapped sideways in the midst of battle. One guy gets killed by a defibrillator zap to his temples. A man is pushed face-first into a red-hot grill. Someone is electrocuted after falling onto live electric wires. And several men are used as human meat shields before being shot point-blank in the face and discarded.

In all of the group conflicts, there are at least a few victims left writhing and moaning, some with gut shots, others with profusely bleeding wounds.

Crude or Profane Language

There are about 25 f-words and a dozen s-words mixed into the script  with a handful of uses each of “a–hole,” “b–ch” and “b–tard.” “Whore” is spit out once as is a misuse of God’s name.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Lots of different people smoke throughout the film, including Kate. Kate drinks wine in a couple different scenes. And it’s implied that she’s poisoned through a bottle of wine. There are others drinking in a bar setting. While in the hospital, Kate holds a doctor at gunpoint and gets five syringes filled with a powerful stimulant. She injects herself at various points in the film to counteract the physically debilitating effects of her radiation poisoning.

Other Negative Elements

Kate vomits repeatedly from the effect of her poisoning and removes teeth due to her toxicity as well. Several men disdain Ani’s mixed Japanese and gaijin heritage. Someone calls her a “half-race b–ch.”

There’s a Hollywood movie trend these days to demonstrate the industry’s progressively modern bona fides by casting a female lead in your typical hard-hitting actioner. It’s often as believable as tossing an average movie reviewer into an MMA ring and expecting a keyboard-jockey win.

That said, star Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s blend of pretty and gritty can almost make you believe that stereotype anyway. You almost swallow the idea that she could be poisoned with radioactive material; jacked up with stimulants; battered repeatedly about the face, head and upper body; shot once or twice; and still be ready to take on a room full of Yakuza thugs after a bloody spit and a gore-encrusted squint. Like I said: Almost.

Of course, there’s more than just believing when it comes to the kind of pulp violence shown here. To get into this pic, you have to kinda enjoy seeing a woman being pounded, stabbed and bloodily abused for 90 minutes. And then you’ll also have to revel in all her muscled, male attackers being rent and ripped in turn as the titular heroine pokes blades in eyes, blows out throats, mercilessly rams sharp objects up through jaws and pops heads like so many gory soap bubbles. You’ve gotta really dig this movie’s stylized ballet of butchery to make it to end credits.

Oh, and you shouldn’t have any queasiness about really nasty language either. Because Kate doesn’t hold back when it comes to noxiously profane spews. Even from its teen stars.

So, keep all of that in mind when you’re perusing the newest movie stream offerings. And if you decide you’d prefer something less blood-spewing and misogynistic you could choose, oh, just about anything other than Kate .

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Kate’ on Netflix, Where An Assassin Marked For Death Kills Her Way To The Truth

Where to stream:.

• mary elizabeth winstead

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New shows & movies to watch this weekend: 'a gentleman in moscow' on paramount+ with showtime + more, ewan mcgregor, mary elizabeth winstead used intimacy coordinator when filming 'a gentleman in moscow' despite being married: "it's still necessary", does chris evans know how to wear headphones an investigation.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s poisoned assassin has one very personal mission to complete before she kicks the bucket in Kate (Netflix), a stylized exercise in genre filmmaking and extended fight sequences from the director of The Huntsman: Winter’s War and writer of Extraction . That mission? Simple: find the poisoners and dispatch their asses. But in the underworld Kate inhabits, the truth and who’s telling it is a lot more difficult to uncover.

KATE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Kate gets its kicks from establishing a brief timeline for its titular character, an assassin handy with rifles, pistols, edge weapons and her trusty fists, and setting her on a pathway to some semblance of satisfaction. It isn’t long after we meet her in the midst of killing a mark that Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is poisoned. It’s “polonium-204” that’s punched her ticket — no antidote, no extended life. So Kate descends into the Tokyo underworld to discover who slipped her the mickey, and tangles with an ever-increasing number of yakuza foot soldiers while she stays ambulatory with auto injections of stimulants. Varrick (Woody Harrelson), her executive-level handler in this assassin’s life, isn’t offering a whole lot of help, so Kate abducts mouthy teenager Ani (Miku Martineau) as a bargaining chip — her uncle Kajima (Jun Kunimura) sits atop the yakuza clan responsible for Kate’s impending demise.

Kate director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan sometimes employs a camera that spins around, either matching the barrel roll of the car Kate is crashing in or following the flailing body of a henchman she’s just sliced apart. But he also keeps the camera remarkably aware of the spatial chaos during a ten-on-one pitched battle amidst the shoji screens of a Japanese club, and amplifies the neon murk as Kate and Ani tumble through nighttime Tokyo in search of Kajima. The thrilling fight choreography and moody atmosphere are effective enough to maintain forward motion, and the film is aided immensely by Winstead’s ability to play an increasingly bloodied and bruised Kate to the hilt, even though the script stalls out whenever there isn’t gunplay in an entertainment district or knives being thrust through necks.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Stunts in ‘Kate’ Proves She Needs a ‘Birds of Prey’ Spinoff

Performance Worth Watching: “All of you asshole hyenas getting fat off of my dad’s carcass!” Newcomer Miku Martineau really leans into the role of Ani, the misfit yakuza niece who forms an unlikely bond with Kate. Only a few minutes spent with the assassin and she’s already threatening mobsters to their face and twisting conventional teen indifference into something serrated and closer to junior badass territory.

Memorable Dialogue: “I’ll be dead before the night’s over!” Ani complains to Kate at one point, but her captor has another hard-bitten one liner ready in the hopper. “That makes two of us.” With her mouth a flat line, her finger on the trigger, and her mind on the mayhem and the mayhem on her mind, Winstead plays Kate close to the bone and cold-blooded to a fault. And why shouldn’t she? We’re watching Kate’s final mortal act transpire.

Sex and Skin: Nothing much here.

Our Take: Do all of the secret assassin societies at work in film today have an annual meeting somewhere? A union? A guild? (Dan Aykroyd wanted fellow freelance hitman John Cusack to join his fledgling union in Grosse Pointe Blank , but those overtures were shot full of holes.) With John Wick and the other members in good standing with the High Table transforming New York City into a battleground, and the League of Shadows lurking about, and ancillary groups like the culture of assassins in Netflix’s recent Gunpowder Milkshake regularly unloading munitions on each other, you’d think the vaguely defined authority Kate works for would run into trouble finding uncompromised “marks.” Isn’t there a finite number of crime bosses, shot callers, and government-issue evil doers to go around? Where’s the trade union regulation? We won’t ever know, or at least not this time, because Kate’s organization isn’t defined, it’s only embodied. Woody Harrelson’s Varrick is the assassin’s handler, mother, father, employer — and someone we trust less with every dwindling moment of his screen time.

The bigger questions about backstory and framework that Kate doesn’t ask appear like thought bubbles and then dissipate. Thus free from the constraints of place and precedent, the film becomes an interconnected series of shooting galleries, or suites of video game levels, with a bleeding, wheezing, but still keen-for-killing Kate barreling through successive throngs of yakuza in her death’s door quest for satisfaction. (A deadly encounter with a mob world higher-up played by Japanese musician Miyavi makes terrific use of space, transforming a modernist penthouse into an arsenal of makeshift murder weapons.) It’s more exhausting with each level, but still possible to ride the style and brutal fisticuffs all the way to Kate’s inevitable finish line.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Led by a resilient, physically propulsive performance from Mary Elizabeth Winstead, high style and higher body counts combine to propel Kate past its dimly imagined world of assassins for hire and murky professional double crosses.

Will you stream or skip #Kate on @netflix ? #SIOSI #KateNetflix — Decider (@decider) September 10, 2021

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

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Common sense media reviewers.

Action thriller has graphic violence, language, stereotypes.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

No positive messages or themes.

Kate is a vicious, brutal, unflinching killer. She

Many Asian people in the cast, but the majority ar

Strong bloody violence throughout. Lots of gory de

A man and a woman have sex on a bed (no nudity) wi

Strong language throughout includes "f--k," "f--ki

The anime Deathnote plays in the background in one

Adults smoke cigarettes stylishly and drink alcoho

Parents need to know that Kate is an incredibly violent, bloody, and brutal action film with strong language throughout. Not for kids, this thriller finds an assassin racing to find out who and why she has been poisoned. Mowing down anyone who gets in her way, Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) eventually runs…

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

Kate is a vicious, brutal, unflinching killer. She does show remorse for past deeds, but it takes slowly dying of poison for her to seek redemption. Sometimes the villains aren't as clear as they might seem.

Diverse Representations

Many Asian people in the cast, but the majority are yakuza, and most only seem to be present to die horrible deaths. Renji and Kijima at least have depth and feel like real people with histories, beliefs, desires; other main roles are quite thin and one-note. Despite a Japanese setting, White characters are the protagonists, with Kate especially poised to fall into the White savior role amidst the movie's mostly flat depictions of Asian people. One biracial character with a "gaijin" mother might be seen as a stereotype, rather than a realistic portrait of a girl witnessing and experiencing extreme violence, family murders, and trauma. Some yakuza openly bemoan "the West" and call Anni "half-blood."

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Strong bloody violence throughout. Lots of gory deaths, point-blank shots to the head, blood and splatter, stabbings, gunfights, gunshot wounds, hand-to-hand combat. Sword and knife fights, a decapitation, knives going through faces, electrocution, fingers sliced off, throats slit, broken bones. Also sniper shots, pistol whippings, grenade explosions. A woman gets drugged, a girl gets chained to a toilet, and a woman gets into a terrible car crash.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A man and a woman have sex on a bed (no nudity) with the covers up. Kate sometimes takes her top off to bandage or clean wounds but is always in her underwear. In scene at bath house, men wear underwear but are otherwise naked.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language throughout includes "f--k," "f--king," "motherf-----r," "s--t," "bitch," "whore," "ass," and "damn."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

The anime Deathnote plays in the background in one scene.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults smoke cigarettes stylishly and drink alcoholic beverages. A woman gets drugged and lethally poisoned.

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Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Kate is an incredibly violent, bloody, and brutal action film with strong language throughout. Not for kids, this thriller finds an assassin racing to find out who and why she has been poisoned. Mowing down anyone who gets in her way, Kate ( Mary Elizabeth Winstead ) eventually runs into a girl who significantly affected the course of Kate's recent life. Expect lots of bloody violence, gunfights, point-blank shots to the head, gunshot wounds, holes in bodies, stabbings, knives going into faces, necks being slit, fingers getting sliced off, hand-to-hand combat, and a decapitation. A woman gets drugged, a girl gets chained to a toilet, and a woman gets into a terrible car crash. There's a brief sex scene without nudity, and another brief scene shows men in their underwear at a bath house. Adults smoke cigarettes stylishly and drink alcoholic beverages. A woman gets drugged and lethally poisoned. Strong language throughout includes "f--k," "f--king," "motherf-----r," "s--t," "bitch," "whore," "ass," and "damn." The film has some stereotypical representations and depictions of Asian people. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (6)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Loved this movie!

Cursing doesn’t look good on the girl., what's the story.

In KATE, a brutally efficient assassin ( Mary Elizabeth Winstead ) finds herself poisoned and with only 24 hours to live. She must find out who did this to her and why. With help from her mentor and handler, Varrick ( Woody Harrelson ), Kate just might be able to save herself. But when an innocent teenage girl gets caught up in the mix, will Kate have time to save her, too?

Is It Any Good?

The violence on display is brutal, creative, and intense, but lots of it might be too much for some viewers. Beyond the violence, however, Kate isn't great. For one, Kate's backstory is thin and simply not enough for the audience to get invested in her or her story. Unfortunately, this means that for each wound, every flinch of pain, and all the times Kate suffers, many viewers might not care. And the problem is that the audience needs to care about Kate saving herself, not dying of poison, and finding redemption.

Further, Kate's relationship with Varrick isn't established or built well, and their dynamic or chemistry is incredibly flat. Varrick, a kind of father/mentor figure to Kate, claims at one point that Kate is the only person in the world he has ever loved. But this is never evident in their interactions, in any flashbacks, or in dialogue. Lastly, many viewers might find the story and general idea of Kate to be racist, as the story is another White savior construction that also features a White person murdering hundreds of Asian people. Additionally, it repeats many stereotypes about Asian and Japanese people specifically.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about violence in action and thriller movies. Was the violence in Kate over-the-top, just right, or not extreme enough? Why?

How do you think this movie, including the characters, plot, and action, compares to other action movies of similar ilk?

Not that it has to, but what do you think this film would've looked like if it featured an entirely Asian and/or Asian American cast? Would this alone fix the "White savior" problem? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : September 10, 2021
• Cast : Mary Elizabeth Winstead , Woody Harrelson , Miku Patricia Martineau , Tadanobu Asano
• Director : Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Asian actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 106 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : Strong bloody violence and language throughout
• Last updated : February 17, 2023

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Screen Rant

Kate review: netflix action movie can’t be saved by mary elizabeth winstead.

Kate has some decently fun action, despite certain trite directorial choices, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead serving as the movie's main bright spot.

Within the action genre, there are plenty of movies that revolve around one main character - particularly a current or retired assassin - going on a mission with determination to see it through for whatever reason. In Kate , the filmmakers put a spin on that trope by setting up the story so that the main character only has a day to live and must complete her mission within that timeframe. The movie is directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan ( The Huntsman: Winter's War ) from a script by Umair Aleem ( Extraction ), with John Wick co-director David Leitch serving as one of Kate's producers.  Kate has some decently fun action, despite certain trite directorial choices, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead serving as the movie's main bright spot.

The film follows an assassin named Kate (Winstead), who is forced by her handlers to kill a man in front of his daughter. Ten months later when she's still struggling to get over the incident, she tells her handler Varrick (Woody Harrelson) that she wants to retire from being an assassin after finishing up her next job. However, something goes wrong when Kate is meant to kill Yakuza leader Kijima (Jun Kunimura), collapsing and waking up in the hospital. She learns she's been poisoned with a radioactive substance and only has 24 hours to live. Determined to track down and kill the man responsible, Kate ends up befriending the young daughter of the man she killed previously, the teenaged Ani (Miku Martineau). With Ani's help as her health deteriorates, Kate sets out to avenge her own murder.

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At its heart, Kate is a mixture of well-worn action movie tropes. The main character is a girl who's been raised to be an assassin by a father figure whose own morality is questionable, and whose life is upended as she's sent on a mission she throws herself into it with reckless abandon. The result is, unfortunately, Kate feeling like an amalgamation of other noteworthy action movies - such as Leitch's films  John Wick and Atomic Blonde - instead of its own thing. While there is some fun action, it doesn't necessarily feel fresh or exciting, especially as Nicolas-Troyan employs certain (and extremely overused) camera tricks, like having blood splatter on the camera (a favorite of directors when 3D movies first became popular).

Perhaps the most fresh and compelling aspect of Kate is Winstead's dynamic with newcomer Martineau. Though a jaded assassin/action hero teaming up with a fresh-faced and naïve youngster is another trope of the movie genre, the actors bring enough personality and charm to the unlikely friendship to sustain the film. The relationship comes off a little underdeveloped due to the restraints of the script, with Aleem's story plodding along through predictable plot beats, action set pieces and the occasional moment of character development. In addition to Winstead and Martineau, Harrelson is a delight as Varrick, while Kunimura brings an exceptional gravitas to the movie. All told, Kate assembled a talented cast, but they're kneecapped by the underwhelming script.

Ultimately, Kate is a fine watch for fans of action movies, Winstead, or anyone particularly interested in the movie's premise. While it doesn't necessarily reinvent the genre or provide an imaginative take on action-thrillers, it's entertaining enough to sustain viewers through the movie's hour and 46-minute runtime. However, it's also not a necessary watch, and those who haven't been intrigued by the premise or the trailers focused on Winstead are certainly fine to skip this particular movie.

Like many of Netflix's original movies, Kate feels like another release that had potential to be good, but falls well short of the mark. So, like Netflix's other films, viewers can check out Kate if they've run out of other things to watch, but it doesn't feel destined to become one of the streamer's viral hits.

Next: Kate Movie Trailer

Kate starts streaming Friday, September 10 on Netflix. It is 106 minutes long and rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

Key Release Dates

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Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a legit action star wasted by Netflix’s Kate

2021’s run of ‘lady-killers’ action movies continues with yet another female assassin

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Whoever makes the next Alien sequel or spinoff should consider casting Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the successor of Sigourney Weaver’s character, Ellen Ripley. Since her breakthrough in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World , Winstead has grown into a self-assured actress whose physical confidence, sardonic line deliveries, and shaggy chopped ’do evoke Weaver’s sci-fi icon. Whether she plays Amanda Ripley, Ellen’s canonical daughter , or a clone of Ellen herself (a narrative possibility imagined by 1997’s Joss Whedon-written Alien Resurrection ), Winstead should be unleashed against the Weyland-Yutani Corporation so everyone can watch the sparks fly. Maybe taking on that kind of iconic role could keep Winstead from tiresome fare like Netflix’s action movie Kate .

Another unimaginative woman-led action flick written and directed by men who telegraph their twists and lean on flashbacks instead of bothering to write character development, Kate mistakes “women can kill just as well as men!” for some sort of new idea. It isn’t — not for Netflix, immediately following Gunpowder Milkshake , and not for other studios, with The Protégé and Jolt piling up on each other’s stiletto-clad footsteps over the past few months. The film’s depiction of Japanese culture as insularly obsessed with “honor” and dismissive of outsiders isn’t particularly fresh, either. And Western fetishization of the yakuza as businessmen with samurai swords is getting pretty uninspired as well.

Winstead and stunt coordinator Jonathan Eusebio, who previously worked together on Birds of Prey , deserve better than this. You could at least watch Kate for the fight scenes alone and be somewhat satisfied. Over Birds of Prey , Gemini Man , and 10 Cloverfield Lane , Winstead has developed a physical confidence as a performer that girds her work as Kate ’s titular assassin. She is poised when she’s aiming a sniper rifle, and controlled when she’s smashing a gun into someone’s face after running out of bullets. With a dagger or a broken glass bottle, her movements are quick, practically churning, as she stabs again and again and again. And Eusebio is skillful at coordinating the fluid one-against-many action scenes that have become his preferred style over the course of projects from the John Wick franchise to The Fate of the Furious , Haywire , and Nikita .

That approach benefits Kate , which positions its protagonist as one woman standing against waves and waves of yakuza members. Kate shoves men’s faces into hibachi grills, elevates and holds herself between buildings so she can shoot downward at her pursuers, and slices off fingers before stabbing men in their mouths. Cinematographer Lyle Vincent flips the camera over to disorient the audience with upside-down fight scenes. He composes close-ups of blood splattering across shoji screens, and relishes Winstead in slow motion, twirling her way through the neon-green laser lights of rifle scopes. The violence isn’t quite ultra, but at least it adds some excitement to the otherwise lackluster script.

Winstead stars as an assassin who hasn’t “missed once in 12 years.” She murders people at the behest of Varrick (Woody Harrelson), her handler/boss/father figure. Varrick tells her who to kill, and she does it without asking any questions. (It’s unclear whether Varrick works for a larger government entity, or runs an entire assassination operation by himself.) That imbalanced relationship has worked since Varrick adopted her as a child. (This may sound remarkably similar to the setup of The Protégé , because it is — Maggie Q and Samuel L. Jackson have the same dynamic in that film.)

Kate’s latest targets are high up in a Japanese crime family, but she thinks something about the job doesn’t feel right. First, she’s ordered to kill someone with his teenage daughter there — a major breach of protocol. Then, 10 months later, she’s called on to kill the big boss, Kijima (Jun Kunimura) — and her body seems to rebel against her actions. Composer Nathan Barr pipes in skipping, cacophonic electronic music to indicate that Kate’s body is malfunctioning, while editors Sandra Montiel and Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir fracture Kate’s vision with askew angles and jarring flashbacks. Kate misses the shot, and when she seeks medical attention for the problem, she’s diagnosed with acute radiation syndrome, which will kill her within a day. So she dedicates her final 24 hours to hunting down Kijima, and decides to use Kijima’s teenage niece Ani (Miku Patricia Martineau) as leverage.

Where Kate then goes is also where Netflix’s Gunpowder Milkshake went. Yet again, a stone-cold killer who happens to be a woman is given a tragic backstory, saddled with a child she sees as a younger version of herself, and tees off against an array of male characters who primarily see female characters as their subordinates, which is meant to be ironic, since they’re being killed by a woman. That’s the expected narrative, and Kate doesn’t deviate from it. Umair Aleem’s script has Kate dream of leaving the killing game for a suburban life with a family, then has her soften toward Ani because of their shared orphan status and mutual fondness for Boom Boom Lemon Japanese soda. That’s a whiplash-inducing motivation shift for a character who until then has murdered strangers for more than a decade with zero second thoughts.

Ani has her own whiplash evolution, going from telling Kate, “Fuck you, cancer bitch,” to “You’re so cool” within the span of about 20 minutes of narrative time. Martineau deserves credit for the zeal with which she chomps into this deeply try-hard dialogue. But there isn’t much of a genuine feminine touch, nor a believable human-behavior touch, in the conceptualization of these characters. What did Kate want to do with her life before Varrick called the shots? Does she have friends? Has she ever been in a relationship, or are one-night stands (as she has with a character played by Michiel Huisman) a self-imposed rule? Does Ani’s biracial status ostracize her at school? Has growing up in the yakuza meant she’s never had a female role model? Would she ever consider leaving Japan? Who are these characters, beyond their obligatory plot-pushing functions?

Neither Kate nor Ani ends up fully three-dimensional, and to be fair, such depth could arguably be superfluous to the thrilling impact of Winstead’s initial ass-kicking scenes. But when the second half of the film shifts into focusing on Kate and Ani’s affection for and allegiance to each other, that move doesn’t feel justified, because they’re so superficial. Unless the filmmakers want viewers to believe that Kate and Ani primarily become tethered by virtue of being “gaijin” foreigners? As a uniting factor, it’s sparse, but as another component of the film’s “Japan hates white people” clichés, it tracks.

Nevertheless, Martineau’s high-energy Ani contrasts well with Winstead’s deadpan Kate, and their commitment is the key to briefly elevating the film from all the limitations that bog it down. The blowhard villains, who spout on and on about honor, are covered with tattooed Japanese script, wield samurai swords and machine guns, and call outsiders “monsters” are wrapped in self-serious grandiosity. Kate puffs up those baddies to such a degree that the facile girl-power moments it provides Kate and Ani aren’t an effective counter. “I’m not looking away anymore,” Kate dramatically says in the film’s third act as a way to describe how the past 24 hours have changed her. But aside from its fight scenes, Kate isn’t much worth looking at, either.

Kate premieres on Netflix on Sept. 10.