Kate
Netflix | Release Date: September 10, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
10
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
The PlaylistCharles BarfieldSep 10, 2021
For those just looking for bones breaking, faces getting stabbed, assassins delivering perfect headshots, Kate more than delivers. This film is a solid, fun action-thriller in a world filled with subpar ‘Wick’-ian clones. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattSep 9, 2021
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. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 9, 2021
So, yes: “Kate” is “John Wick” meets “Die Hard” meets “Collateral” meets “Kill Bill all the Volumes” and we’ve seen it all before and you’re not going to get much in the way of original plot, but what you WILL get is a grindhouse of a good time with some bleak and wickedly sharp humor, screen-popping visuals and some pretty great fight choreography. Read full review
70
VarietyAmy NicholsonSep 5, 2021
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. Read full review
65
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerSep 8, 2021
It would be a stretch to call Kate a modern Western, but it has a certain gunslinger sensibility that mitigates any self-conscious edginess. There’s even a modicum of poignancy as Winstead fights her personal battle through increasing bodily disrepair. Despite the existence of so many movies like it, Kate tires you out on its own terms. Read full review
60
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Amil NiaziSep 12, 2021
It’s a shame that both Umair Aleem’s script and Cedric Nicolas-Troyan’s (The Huntsman: Winter’s War) direction ultimately feel rote because both Winstead and Martineau’s performances are fun to watch. Their playful, natural chemistry keeps the film from dragging on and lends a necessary levity and wit to the movie’s 106 minutes. Read full review
60
PolygonRoxana HadadiSep 10, 2021
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. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesMichael OrdoñaSep 9, 2021
Kate has its charms. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 9, 2021
A to-the-point two-hour slab of pulp that slickly glides above a very low bar. Read full review
50
SlateKaren HanSep 14, 2021
Kate gestures at being different, something fresh and subversive, but at the end of the day, it’s just reheating old clichés. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellSep 10, 2021
Winstead is nothing short of fantastic in terms of both her physical and performative presence, but she could have really used a meatier journey to sink her teeth into. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussSep 9, 2021
Kate looks like most other productions from 87North, the company behind such cinematic cage fights as Atomic Blonde and the John Wick films. Honestly, this could have been called “Nuclear Brunette.” But with heart. Read full review
50
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonSep 2, 2021
Winstead may be a bonafide action hero, but the world around her just isn't interesting enough. Read full review
40
Screen RantMolly FreemanSep 3, 2021
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. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterAngie HanSep 2, 2021
The film’s mimicry might be deft enough to pass muster here and there. But it doesn’t take an eagle eye to notice that Kate‘s got few ideas of its own. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonSep 10, 2021
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. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 10, 2021
It’s not much fun, and not particularly gripping. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineWes GreeneSep 5, 2021
Kate will leave you wishing that its narrative possessed the same attention to detail as its elaborately violent action set pieces. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubCharles BramescoSep 3, 2021
Even if the combat choreography that made this vein of cinema so popular is up to snuff, and Winstead does handle her steps ably even as her character breaks down, this film should aspire to be more than a delivery system for a few solid shootouts. Read full review
30
CNNBrian LowrySep 10, 2021
Look, we get it, people are looking for new stuff to watch, mindless escapism included. Still, in terms of any sort of inspiration or originality, "Kate," the movie, is every bit as D.O.A. as Kate, the character. Read full review
30
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeSep 9, 2021
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. Read full review
20
IGNLaura SirikulSep 2, 2021
Kate is a bland and unoriginal action movie that fails to make us care about its title character. Read full review
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