Bangkok Dangerous

Untouched by the original, but aware of the direction of Nick Cage’s acting career, I approached the film with a slight bias. But as the Prague intro suggested, the Pangs made it into a B-movie, which they tried to spiritualize with a wistful romance. However, it's hard to believe in the hero who, with his zero emotion, then has an emotional outburst for a deaf-mute girl. At the same time, it makes the film less fateful, which the final meeting in the warehouse especially needed. This leaves us with only a few impressive moments (the action in the pool, the shot-up boat, the elimination of the pickpockets) that you can't erase from your memory. It’s too bad the same can't be said for the whole film. (13/01/2009)

A hitman heads to Thailand for one last job and discovers his humanity in the process. The lacklustre script drags Bangkok Dangerous down a lot, and a lacklustre Nicolas Cage doesn't help the result much either. Fortunately, though, the Pang brothers know their way around a camera and occasionally manage to pull off an interesting-looking scene. Overall, though, the film is a rather bland average that you can easily miss in theaters. (18/11/2008)

The Pangs do a good job, but the uneven performance given by Nick Cage spoils things and the story is a little weird. Nevertheless, the action scenes are really nicely done, Tyler’s music is A-grade (perhaps it’s better than the entire movie) and the Prague locations made me happier than I had expected. (13/12/2008)

Pure routine with an invulnerable killer who has everything under control, his mischievous apprentice with the heart in the right place, a fragile relationship between the hitman and a deaf-mute girl, remorse, talks about happiness, and some action thrown in, surprisingly, with even severed limbs and a body torn in half by a grenade. Nevertheless, as a remake, it is a shamefully sterile and unexciting film. There is no progression in the plot and the ending is emotionally weak. In terms of what Nicolas Cage is currently involved in, it is average. (29/01/2009)

Nicolas Cage has no luck when it comes to scripts. Otherwise, I can't explain why Bangkok Dangerous is so hopeless, even though it is quite nicely and interestingly directed. I wasn't expecting much from the film and was looking forward to at least an entertaining B-movie. After the start in Prague it looked promising, and after arriving in Bangkok the same. But then it all started to fall apart. The dumb script turns Cage's silent killer into an idiot who (although a super-professional in his field) doesn't know what disinfectant to buy at the pharmacy for his wound, falls in love with the pharmacist, starts (why on earth?) mentoring and training his henchman... Oh, my God. It is saved by a few well-done action scenes, but unfortunately they are short and have too much (non) plot filler between them. As for the action, the best part of the whole film is definitely the boat chase... The destruction of one of the villains in the pool is also filmed quite effectively and the final shootout has something to it, although it is too drowned in darkness for my taste. Two and a half stars. (25/04/2010)

An utterly charming cock-up as Nicolas Cage hits on a mute Thai pharmacist, kneels in front of Buddha, feeds an elephant, and shoots people. It's incredibly stupid and I nearly went insane laughing several times. It's definitely worth mentioning the brief cuts to surprised Czech police officers when a guy gets shot in front of them. That's just great. Or Nicolas, the very cool killer, inviting the bitch over for dinner and eating that hot food and being all shitty about how it burns. Also totally awesome. The Pang brothers really don't know what they're doing, but they deserve two stars because... I don't know, you can't tell an armless kid that the house he painted with his feet sucks.) (08/11/2010)