'Kate' fires off a Netflix action movie that looks D.O.A. in more ways than one

Someone must be watching Netflix's parade of mindless thrillers like "Kate" (never mind why), but even allowing for that, it's hard to imagine a more bare-boned plot as excuses for stylized violence go. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays the movie's eponymous female assassin, in a mash-up loaded with old-movie ammunition that still comes away firing blanks.

Aside from Winstead's recent role as Huntress in the "Harley Quinn" movie, the most obvious point of reference would be "D.O.A.," the 1950 film noir starring Edmond O'Brien (subsequently remade with Dennis Quaid) in which a fatally poisoned man spends his remaining hours trying to unravel the mystery of who killed him. In similar fashion, Kate -- a Tokyo-based killer for hire -- ingests a slow-acting poison, giving her a day to track down who was responsible, slashing and shooting her way through much of Japan. She delivers the bad news to the boss who raised her, played by Woody Harrelson, who can play this sort of appealing hitman in his sleep.