AKA "Killing Cupid"
Starring:
Jenya Lano
Jeff Fahey
Lorenzo Lamas
Michael Worth
Christa Sauls
Dan Southworth
Written & Directed by Michael Worth
Orphaned at a young age Valentine was taken in by the mysterious "Trainer" and raised to be an assassin.
When legendary hitman Cupid goes rogue Valentine and her team are sent to take him out. Valentine succeeds in putting a bullet in Cupid's gut but before he dies he asks her a simple question ; "Warrior or Assassin. Which are you?"
This triggers something of an epiphany and Valentine takes off to find a new path for herself, eventually finding herself in a remote desert town and meeting Cupid's son.
Naturally the rest of her team do not take kindly to one of their own taking early retirement and they come looking for her.
The charity shop up the road from me has a surprising stash of Continental DVDs - This one is apparently a Dutch release. And although it's in English there isn't an option to turn the damn subtitles off, adding an extra level of oddness to the viewing experience.
A quick look at the cast list reveals that the writer also directs and takes one of the lead roles. This is rarely a good sign, especially in a low-budget movie.
The DVD cover suggests a full-on martial-arts experience and despite frequent references to Kung-fu movies there's not too much facekicking action until the end of the film. What you get is a quirky item with a certain amount of semi-meaningful musing and some understated humour.
Which is the problem I have with this movie. There's some good bits, there's some amusing bits and when the action arrives it's worth seeing, but there's too much sub-Tarantino arthouse dialogue to wade through and it brings the whole thing down.
With a little pruning and tightening-up Warrior Or Assassin/Killing Cupid could have been a lot better.
Since adding pics to a post always seems to go down well, time for some screencaps.
Considering she just put a bullet in him, he's surprisingly friendly.
I think there's a law that says female assassins have to be hot.
Valentine and her crew. Not really getting the "Discreet" part of the job.
Our redheaded killer finds herself chatting to the decaying corpse of one of her previous victims. Why? Some sort of dream-sequence I guess.
You see what I mean about this movie being "quirky", don't you?
He starts dancing in a minute.
No, Seriously.
The Trainer. Spends a lot of time hanging about his warehouse being all Zen-like.
Valentine contemplates a new career that doesn't involve shooting people in the face.
...and shares a moment with a guy dressed as a giant rabbit.
