Film Review: Kate (2021)
Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
By Dana Foster
So it’s been rather dissatisfying “Lady Action-flick Summer”… we were inundated with marketing for that dynamite milk-shake misstep (“Gunpowder Milk-Shake”), let down in the opening 10 minutes… We were upset by the audacity of “Jolt”… and we haven’t viewed “The Protégé,” but we have hope because we like Maggie Q and adore Michael Keaton…
but so far “Kate” is the one 
Hot-wiring elements from similarly successful narratives, Hit-Woman-For-Hire, trained from childhood, “Kate” finds herself poisoned with a day to live at most… the plot is structured into 5 parts mirroring the 5 doses of stimulant “Kate” uses to keep her body from shutting down before righteously ending things with those responsible for her condition.
We’ve always been enamored by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and thought she’d make an incredible action performer. “Kate” is your typical derivative revenge fair that, with style and charisma, raises the bar if ever so slightly within the genre, in a visceral and tight 90 minutes of the level of action choreography the mainstream audience has come to expect from “John Wick” producer David Leitch. We would’ve paid full price to this in theaters…