This is How Movies Should Be Made

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I had heard about this film during the time of its release, and I predicted because of the leading actor that it was going to be rated terribly by the critics, but I had no idea it was a remake of a Thai film, so I was going to chance it. Basically Joe (Nicolas Cage) is a professional American hit-man who has travelled to Bangkok for his latest assignments, he has been paid to assassinate four people during the month that he is staying, all of them he is killing for Bangkok gang lord Surat (Nirattisai Kaljaruek). To help him with his jobs he hires pickpocket Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm) to do his errands, the hit-man gets his four target details from nightclub dancer Aom (Panward Hemmanee) with whom Kong becomes romantically involved with, and the young thief learns to follow his given instructions. To make sure he cannot be found Joe sticks to a set of rules for a hit-man to follow, and he kills his targets in crowded or lesser known places to avoid detection, including his first in a traffic jam and his second being drowned in a penthouse swimming pool. Away from his work he visits a pharmacy and becomes fascinated with the deaf pharmacist assistant Fon (Charlie Yeung), which name means "rain", and over the weeks he takes her out for dinner and other dates, he falls madly in love with her, but she has no idea of his name, nationality or profession. The relationship is cut short when she witnesses him kill two assailants in cold blood, but Joe must continue to his third kill, and Kong joins him, but it does not go to plan when it turns into a chase, but he catches up to the target and kills him in front of witnesses. Joe's fourth and final target is a good man, the Prime Minister of Thailand, so he has decide between his morals and following orders to avoid being killed, he eventually goes against instructions and becomes the target of the gang members, but they are taken out with explosives. Joe must save Kong and Aom from the headquarters of the gang, he kills most of the members, and he knows the only way to stop the brutality is to kill the man who hired him, so he briefly returns to Fon to show his affection from a distance, then with one bullet left he takes Surat and fires through both his and the gang lord's head. Also starring Dom Hetrakul as Aran and James With as Chicago. Cage is a suitable choice playing the moody and skilled assassin, admittedly with an odd Ken Dodd hairstyle, and Yamnarm is funny as the inquisitive but loyal errand boy, the target killing is good, the love story between the killer and the deaf girl is just about interesting, and the sights oh Thailand are nice, it is a bit slow occasionally, lacks some originality and overdoes things a little, but it is slick and cool enough to keep you watching, an alright action thriller. Okay!

Bangkok Dangerous starts as professional hit-man Joe (Nicolas Cage) arrives in thriving Bangkok to carry out four jobs, four jobs that he fully intends to be his last before he retires from the assassination business for good. First thing that Joe does is hire a local petty criminal named Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm) who will act as his go between & translator when needed. Joe swears by several codes that dictate how he carries out his work, however these rules begin to blur as Joe falls in love with a deaf & mute pharmacist & starts to doubt what he is doing, after sparing the life of Kong he decides to become his teacher & train him to become an assassin. After completing his first three hits Joe is hired to assassinate a politician & has second thoughts, after not carrying out this job Joe becomes the target as the people hiring him cannot afford him to talk & implicate them & as such kidnap Kong in an attempt to get to Joe but Joe is one step ahead & sets out to rescue his friend & kill the bad guy's...Directed by Oxide Pang Chun & Danny Pang who are collectively know as The Pang Brothers this is a remake of the Thai produced film Bangkok Dangerous (1999) that they wrote & also directed, I have to admit right now that I have not seen the original Bangkok Dangerous so I cannot compare the two at all so I was able to judge this remake on it's own merits without being clouded by opinions (whether they would be good or bad) of the original. Bangkok Dangerous feels like a routine mid budget US action thriller, the story about a hit-man who grow's a conscience & his subsequent fight against the bad guy's is standard fare & pretty bland to be honest. One big problem I had with Bangkok Dangerous was that the script introduces huge character changes at the drop of a hat with no explanation, why does Joe decide to train Kong to be an assassin? His so-called rules prevent this. Why does Joe fall for that pharmacist? Since she can't talk the slushy date scenes are rather one sided & quite awkward. Why change his mind about his last hit? Because Kong called the guy good? It's never revealed why the fat bad guy wants these people dead anyway, the character's are poor & the dialogue little better. To be fair huge leaps of logic in action films is not unheard of but any decent action film worth it's salt will cover the glaring script deficiencies up with some great action scenes that take your mind off the real life narrative, unfortunately that is not the case here as Bangkok Dangerous has a real lack of action & the one or two moments when it does threaten to break out it's unimaginative & bland in the extreme. At almost 100 minutes it drags in places, it has no soul & is pretty forgettable overall.As I already mentioned the biggest disappointment here are the lacklustre action scenes, there's a couple of fights, a rather limp boat chase, one or two shoot-outs including the usual nonsense where the bad guy's can't hit a barn door yet Joe can take them out without even thinking about it. Boring. The action scenes are very flat, the stunt work is average & Bangkok Dangerous fails to excite or thrill. There's a bit of nudity but not much & the Bangkok locations are mostly wasted. There's the odd colourful street life scene but the majority of Bangkok Dangerous is pretty drab & lifeless.The IMDb says that Bangkok Dangerous had a budget of about $40,000,000 which seems like a lot considering what ended up on screen, actually filmed in Bangkok in Thailand. The acting isn't great, Nicolas Cage can be great entertainment value but here he looks lost & has a really bad hair cut. In fact considering he is meant to be an invisible assassin he sure stands out while walking around Bangkok with his clothes & hair. I don't remember much about anyone else but some of the Thai girls in that strip club scene look very nice.Bangkok Dangerous is an action thriller that doesn't really deliver on either count, the action is dull & the story is impossible to take seriously. I can't say watch the original instead as I've never seen it but surely it can't be much worse than this? Even Nicolas Cage appears off form here, difficult to recommend.

This is a film that has 3 or 4 interwoven story lines. All of them focus around "Joe" (Nicholas Cage) who is a professional assassin. The first scenario centers on his assignment to kill four different people in Bangkok. The second involves a romantic relationship with a young Thai woman named "Fon" (Charlie Yeung), who happens to be deaf. The third feature has him training a Thai man named "Kong" (Shahkrit Yamnarm), on how to kill. There is also another subplot in which Kong gets involved with a pretty nightclub girl named "Aom" (Panward Hemmanee). So basically what we have are several different subplots being acted out around the same time which requires the audience to shift focus from one to another. Normally, this would be okay if the directors (Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang) devoted more time to bolstering each segment with meaning or character development. Instead, it appears that the film just rushes into one story and then switches to another without fully exploring the potential of any of them. For example, I'm not really convinced that the romantic interaction between Joe and Fon benefited from her being deaf. Yes, it helped one specific scene in which Joe shoots two armed thieves while Fon's back is turned. But it also takes away huge possibilities due to their essential lack of dialogue. Another example involves the relationship between Kong and Aom. Except for a few brief moments (coming and going) there is no real connection being established between the two. Not only that, but the directors don't really use Aom to her full potential. Be that as it may, because of these various diversions, the movie doesn't really get into a good rhythm until after the first 45 minutes or so. After that, however, it begins to get pretty interesting--until the shootout near the end--which was as predictable as it was absurd. I also didn't care for the way the movie ended. It almost seemed like the directors were too interested in being "unique" or "artistic" rather than caring whether this picture satisfied the audience. In short, they had good acting and a very exotic location. All this film needed was a little imagination or some good direction to rise from an average movie to one that could have been much better. It didn't get either.

'Bangkok Dangerous' is Time-Pass! A fairly engaging crime-thriller, that packs in some superb moments & a winning performance by its protagonist, Academy-Award-Winner Nicolas Cage.'Bangkok Dangerous' Synopsis: A hit-man who's in Bangkok to pull off a series of jobs violates his personal code when he falls for a local woman and bonds with his errand boy.'Bangkok Dangerous' has some superb moments, that deserve a mention. The Love-Story, in particular, stands out, while the Action-Sequences are brutal & unforgiving. However, its biggest flaw lies in its culmination, which simply doesn't work! The Pang Brothers Screenplay works, but the culmination is very underwhelming. Their Direction, on the other-hand, is stylish. Cinematography is well-done. Editing & Art Design, are fair.Performance-Wise: As mentioned, Nic Cage delivers a winning performance. He plays the no non-sense Hit-Man to the hilt. Shahkrit Yamnarm is relegated to backseat, while Charlie Yeung does a fine job. Panward Hemmanee is earnest.On the whole, 'Bangkok Dangerous' is a good watch.