‘Bangkok Dangerous’ a colorful crime thriller

“Don’t ask questions, don’t take an interest in people outside the job, erase every trace of your presence, and get out when you can.” That is Nicolas Cage’s recurring motto in ‘Bangkok Dangerous’ as Hollywood takes ‘Collateral’ to the colorful streets of Thailand in a purely average, but mostly satisfying crime thriller about a man with no conscience, and no remorse for the people he hurts in a life of profitable killing.

Nicolas Cage plays a hitman named Joe London (obviously an alias) who must complete one last mission that sends him on a special “vacation” in Thailand. With a pickpocket assistant by his side, and four kills away from retirement, Joe must confront his own personal morals as he caps off a career in which only the successful have none whatsoever.

Hitmen stories have always grabbed my attention for their simplistic, yet dark, atmospheres, and seeing Mr. Snake Eyes at the helm of the violence gave me a decent amount of hope for this remake. Anyone who’s ever seen another contract killer story can probably guess where all of Cage’s bullets will fly long before he pulls the trigger, but seeing as how this remake still belonged to the original owners, the term “rip off” doesn’t exactly work, even if things were still better the first time. I’m guessing the privilege of having a much higher budget outweighed any ambition to spice up what the Pang Brothers already had.

The original Thai version certainly had a more unique feel to it with the killer being deaf mute (an aid to his cold blooded ways), but even if the new version has him fully aware of his surroundings, Cage still leaves nothing behind in terms of potential. He may have had better hair days on the set, but he doesn’t disappoint as a dismal loner carrying a gun. He doesn’t know who he’s killing, and he doesn’t think about what he’s doing; he just does it for the simple fact, “it’s my job.” And he’s good at it too… until a sexy love bug catches his eye before the job is done. It may be a necessary component as far as telling the story, but true hitmen don’t fall in love. Most of them don’t even acknowledge the existence of women unless they’re killing one.

The Pang Brothers debuted with the original version, and now that they have more fame and money, it makes sense for them to try and reboot their launching project. And everyone knows that for some reason, America always needs its own version of the foreign films that were already excellent enough. At least we knew not to bury this one in three times as much blood. It’s not a bad matinée investment for its target audience, nor is it a backdrop for its acclaimed star, but when you’ve seen one movie like this, it’s pretty safe to say that you’ve seen it all… and there have been plenty better ones already.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 5 2008. Filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry