Netflix fans have been raving about an under-the-radar thriller movie on the streaming platform that people ‘just have to watch’.
A member of the Facebook group Netflix Bangers, whose three million members offer copious recommendations, recently posted a picture from a 2021 Netflix original film and asked: ‘Please review this film before I start watching.’
The movie in question was Kate, an action-packed psychological thriller starring Ahsoka actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, former Cheers star Woody Harrelson, Miku Martineau and Michiel Huisman.
In response, the film fan was urged to give Kate a try as fellow members raved about it.
‘Such a good movie. Mary Winstead is amazing in this,’ promised Sean Shannon, while Be La Ma proclaimed, ‘I love this movie’, and Leanne R Phipps added: ‘Loved it, brilliant film.’
Lexy Alison also described it as ‘a fun ride’ and when a member shared a short synopsis of the film, they followed up imploring that people ‘just have to’ watch Kate.
The film follows assassin Kate (Winstead), whose mentor and handler (Harrelson) assigns her to kill a high-ranking yakuza boss.
However, during her final mission, Kate finds out that she has been poisoned by a stranger and has at most a day to live.
After stealing injectable stimulant drugs and a gun, she sets out on a mission to avenge her own murder with her last few hours left alive.
The $25,000,000-movie is largely based in Japan and was filmed there as well as Thailand and Los Angeles, directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, who directed The Huntsman: Winter’s War after being Oscar nominated for his role as VFX supervisor on the first film, Snow White and the Huntsman.
Kate received mixed review upon release and is rated officially rotten on Rotten Tomatoes by critics, who have given it a score of 46% on the Tomatometer and called it ‘disappointingly derivative of numerous other female assassin films’.
However, Winstead was praised for doing ‘reliably gripping work in the title role.
It fared better with audiences though, managing a slightly more positive score of 52% from fans, who also gave it a pretty solid 6.2/10 for its IMDb rating.
‘Action movie, lots of killing, over the top, entertaining. Bad reviews are from people who liked Twilight and The Acolyte,’ claimed Jeremy H on the review aggregator website, while Rebecca B’s recent five-star rating added: ‘It’s a good, brainless, revenge action plot. I enjoyed it!’
Theodoras A also praised Kate for ‘[following] the narrative style of Kabuki, a classical form of Japanese theatre told in five acts’ and Niko O insisted it was ‘much much better than these reviews deserve [sic]’.
However, JG’s half-star review was brutal as he wrote: ‘With that rating, I can only muster a one-word comment – why? If I ever discover the answer, perhaps my rating will drop another half.’