With the sure-fire signs of fall all around us, hardly anyone anticipated much from the box-office for the same opening weekend as the NFL. The opening of Nicolas Cage’s Bangkok Dangerous to the tune of the worst hollywood box office weekend in 5 years however made at least two things clear: 1. Most of us would rather watch the pigskin than Cage’s frakenstein-esqe performances. 2. Thankfully, the better more anticipated fall movie season is just around the corner.
Nicolas Cage plays an anonymous hitman (Joe) sent to Bangkok for one last job before leaving his amoral line of work forever. While scouting the location, he stumbles across a young pickpocket whom he trains for use in his forthcoming hits. With the intention of disposing of the young man at the end of his job, Joe begins to train him for use in the gritty underground world of crime in Bangkok. Joe begins to break several of his profession’s key rules however when a budding love interest takes precedent over his work.
With minimal plot and mostly wooden performances all around, the film plays more like Bangkok Boring. The Chinese born Pang brothers, directing a remake of their own film from 2001 would do well to listen to some of the great filmmakers’ classic rules of “show don’t tell”. The audience is so belabored with the point that the lead character is going through a moral crisis that its effect is lost almost entirely. The film’s washed out cinematography and shoddy narration from Cage are not needed nearly as much as good acting. Still, buried within this film somewhere is a genuinely intriguing story, that in the hands of better storytellers would be able to compete for audiences’ attentions with the likes of Brett Favre’s debut as a New York Jet.
2/5
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