Eye Candy #158 - "Bangkok Dangerous"

Bangkok Dangerous: For every good Nicolas Cage movie (“Lord of War”, “Adaptation”), there are five that out-and-out blow. Seriously. Since 2005, he’s done “Ghost Rider”, “Next”, “Bangkok Dangerous” and done them all badly. I don’t know who thinks that Cage has the appeal of a Tom Hanks, but they’re wrong, and if they took a look at box office receipts, they might see that. With his latest offering, we get a quasi-remake of a Thai thriller from 10 years ago, about a hitman in Bangkok, the errand boy he takes under his wing as an apprentice, and the deaf/mute Thai girl he falls for. As the killer goes about his business, he realizes that indeed his actions hurt people and sets out an that ol’ revenge kick to avenge his victims on the people that employed him. In some respects, this film feels exactly like an Asian action flick - over-use of slow-motion, choreographed gunplay with a high body count, and of course, lots of Asians running around. So yes, it feels like an Asian action flick, it just doesn’t feel like a good Asian action flick. Slow-moving, with a miscast Cage. He’s one of the most atypical looking people to try blending into the background of Bangkok. He sticks out like a sore thumb. Directed by the Pang Brothers (Danny and…Oxide), they are apparently the Thai IT directors, as they also did the original “Eye” movies. This type of plot was done better in “The Killer” with Chow Yun Fat. Watch that instead. Woodchuck sez, “Skip it.”