By KefkaTaran
Bangkok Dangerous
2-Disc Special Edition
Directed by Danny Pang, Oxide Pang Chun
Starring Nicolas Cage, Charlie Yeung, Shahkrit Yamnarm, Panward Hemmanee, Nirattisai Kaljaruek
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: January 6, 2009
Last fall, I became intimately familiar with the trailer for Bangkok Dangerous. With an advertising wallet seemingly bigger than their budget for the film itself, the two-minute teaser was splashed all over television and the Internet for a month. In my case, it was attached to nearly every video on GameVideos.com, which I was required to use daily for my job. You probably know the trailer I mean, but if not you can check it out for yourself at the bottom of this review. It begins with an awkward voice-over from a Nicolas Cage who believes himself to be as bad-ass as his name implies. The narration ends and the action scene montage begins with the goofiest line imaginable: “My name is Joe. This is what I do.” If that doesn’t conjure up images of a cold-blooded assassin, well…yeah, it really doesn’t.
Despite the lukewarm first impression, the intro scene to the film, which also climaxes in the “My name is Joe” line, actually works rather well. There is a nice build-up as the camera cuts quickly and dramatically between Cage’s character in a belltower with a sniper rifle, his target in a building across from the tower, and his watch, counting down to the exact moment when he must fire the shot. The watch’s alarm goes off, the bell tolls, the shot is fired, and the target falls dead. And after all of that, we find out the assassin’s name. As unimaginative as his parents may have been, this introduction certainly raised my standards from my originally grim trailer-based expectations. Just not for long.
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