Luc Besson’s Anna, a film that promised to deliver thrills like the same director’s excellent La Femme Nikita or Léon, is currently the most-watched spy movie on Netflix despite terrible reviews and allegations of sexual misconduct by Besson.
Times have changed since La Femme Nikita but the critics suggest that Besson hasn’t based on his 2019 film Anna. The Guardian says that the plot “feels patchworked together from better films” and “at times the film plays like a softcore porno just with the sex scenes cut short”. But “what ultimately sinks the film is its overwhelming blandness”. RogerEbert.com agrees: “Even long-standing fans of [Besson’s] will find it hard to muster much enthusiasm for this startlingly lazy bit of by-the-numbers hackwork.”
The good news is that there are plenty of other killer thrillers to watch on Netflix. Here are some of our favorite new Netflix movies to watch instead.
The Killer
David Fincher directs Michael Fassbender in this stylish take on the genre in which death is just another thing for sale. According to The Movie Cricket, Fincher “depicts Fassbender’s assassin as the Grim Reaper [and] as the ultimate vulture capitalist”. Although there’s a suitably thrilling finale this isn’t an action-packed assassination extravaganza; it’s more of a mood piece that lures you into the killer’s world and worldview.
Oldboy
This astonishing revenge movie focuses on an obnoxious drunk who’s abducted and imprisoned for more than a decade with only a TV for company. And then he’s out, and after his jailer. Although it’s since been remade it’s the original, directed by Park Chan-wook, that you want to stream. It’s one of the best movies in Asian cinema and, as Starburst says, “still holds up as a true tour de force that is just as fresh and hard-hitting… as it was upon its release 16 years ago.” As the Wall Street Journal put it:”Shakespearean in its violence, Oldboy also calls up nightmare images of spiritual and physical isolation that are worthy of Samuel Beckett or Dostoyevsky.”
Available to stream on Now in the UK and Shudder in Australia.
Kill Bill: Vol 1
You can’t have a list of great killers without Uma Thurman’s The Bride, who wakes from the coma that resulted from an unsuccessful attempt to murder her. The Bride isn’t just after the titular Bill: she’s after every single person who played a part in the many sadnesses she’s endured. Variety called it “a strange, fun and densely textured work that gets better as it goes along”, while The Guardian said that it’s “brutally bloody and thrillingly callous from first to last.”
Available to stream on Starz in the UK.
