JPF Home Page Forums Creative Arts Forums Acting, Theater, Film and TV Forum "G-A-C" Review" BANGKOK DANGEROUS/ Nicholas Cage/Shahlent Yamram

Yes, here comes a Nicholas Cage "Shoot-'Em-Up", a Re-make of Directors Oxide & Danny Pang's 1999 Asian-Made Flick of The Same Title. You just KNOW from the Title it's gonna be Violent & Bloody, so prepare for a Guy-Flick & Leave the Kiddies at-Home.

In The Original, Cage's "Murder-For-Hireling" was a Deaf-Mute. In This One, it's his Love Interest, Fon (Charlie Yeung), who's at a loss for words..& the Plotline loses something in-translation..JMO. But you WILL see a Lot of Bangkok and definitely get the "Dangerous" delivered. As Sightseeing-Flicks go, high-points are a Cave turned Buddhist Religious Pilgrimage Site..& a "Floating Markets" visit that turns into quite a Chase Scene.

As an Adventure-Flick, Cage has 4 "Hits" assigned to him by his Secret Contact. Get the Job Done & Move On is his viewpoint...& he takes a Local under his wing, Kong, (Shalent Yamram), as an Apprentice..tho it's against his Usual Operating Procedure. Cage also breaks-Precedent by falling in-love with a Local Gal..Fon, who does an admirable job as a Deaf-Mute local beauty with a sense of Decency.

Her Decency and Aversion to Bloodshed (in this violently-portrayed sex-&-sinner's town) affects Cage in his final Mission.

I found The Ending to be a bit TOO-Hollywood to be Truly-Satisfying. But, if you like Macho and Gore in Exotic Places, you'll probably rate it Higher than the "6 1/2-Outta-10" I feel compelled to give it. It's Overall-Exciting; I enjoy Elephants included in the Script, Thailand wasn't too-badly presented as an Exotic Destination (References to Las Vegas felt Apropos), & The Bad Guys were really, REALLY Bad.

IF Scriptwriter Jason Rickman had done a better job with "The Ending" I think I'd have gladly ponyed-up for viewing "The Sequel". As it stands, it's NOT For The Squeamish, & those who'll see it will probably agree..it swerves from Dangerous to Dumb in the Tail of The Last Reel. (No Sequel Necesssary...)

Alas.

JMO
Keep-or-Sweep-It.

Big Hugs,
Stan

PS: Steve Mason at Fantasy Moguls called this weekend "The WORST HOLLYWOOD WEEKEND in 7 YEARS"...(Box Office-Wise.) Cage had a bet made it wouldn't make $8 Mil Opening Weekend..or he'd retire "if"...& it came in around $30K short...$7.8 mil Fri-Sat-Sun.

Mason: "You'd have to go back to Sept 21-23 to find a 3-day Weekend as SLOW as this one in which the Top 12 Movies look to gross an estimated $44.43 mil. (In Sept. 2001 the number was $43.53 mil.)" {Caps are Mine, I'll add.}

Bangkok Dangerous WAS the #1 Movie this weekend, Box-Office-Wise.

This is often when people dump bad movies. It's interesting to see if the Deniro/Pacino flick and the new Cohen brothers movie, which both come out this week, are the start of the turn around in quality, or if they are simply not as good as people had hoped they'd be. It seems like some recent films from P&D have fallen a bit flat.

Brian

Hi Bro Bri!

Yep..Too-True! Here we are with Yet Another Sat Nite coming up...& No Idea what to go see...

Saw This One on a coin-toss...prolly do the same this weekend again. Think the Brad Pitt/George Clooney "Burn After Reading" one is prolly The Winner...I'll for sure let ya know! (La Femme may have Other Ideas..but she too likes the Trailers for it.)

Regretfully, we've not seen any Free Preview Tix available for 2 weeks...so we've down to 1-Movie-a-Week currently..on our budget.

Best Wishes Big Buddy,
& an Extra-Large Guy-Hug,
Ol' Stan