Who payed the critics

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Pretty Good

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Protagonist Joe is a contract killer who believes in following four rules. These are: one, don't have a social life; two, always live somewhere quiet but not too quiet; three, don't meet your employers in person and eliminate the contacts and four, know when to get out of the business. Joe has decided that it is now time to get out; he just has one job left. This involves killing four individuals in Bangkok.Once there he recruits local pickpocket, Kong, to act as his go-between and translator. He gives Kong very strict rules about not looking in the cases he gets from the contact. He obeys but after an attempted mugging he sees the contacts of one case… it looks as if Joe will kill him there and then but Kong asks him to teach him how to do his job; something Joe agrees to do. After one hit Joe is slightly injured so goes to a chemist to get some antiseptic and ends up going on a date with the deaf woman who works there. The fourth and final hit is different to the others; they involved criminals but this one is a popular local politician who Kong tells him is a very good man. To make matters worse his employers have decided that it is best to eliminate everybody involved in the hits.This might not be a classic film but it is a solid enough example of the genre. Not surprisingly there are plenty of clichés; we have the lone hit-man who finally takes on an apprentice, there is romance and his employers finally turn against him… these are of course staples of the genre as is the fact that the people we see him kill are all really bad people; if the makers want the viewers to be sympathetic to a killer it is easy if his victims are worse and he grows a conscience when asked to kill a good man. The assassinations we are shown are all varied and quite exciting. There is some gore; most notably when the third victim loses an arm to a boat propeller and the severed limb is shown more than once. The story is told at a good pace and the romance doesn't detract from the story of a contract killer; in fact it is rather refreshing to see a deaf character in a romantic situation… although we have to accept that she can lip read English as she seems to understand him much of the time! The cast do a solid job; Nicolas Cage is a good lead and the rest of the cast impress to, most notably Shahkrit Yamnarm who plays Kong and Charlie Yeung who plays love interest Fon. It was refreshing to have a film aimed at a Western audience that only had one Westerner (Cage) in a main role. Overall I'd say that this was pretty enjoyable and would recommend it to fans of the genre, I can't comment on how it compares to the original Thai version of the film as I've not seen that.

The Pang Brothers remake their 2000 Asian film for the American audience with mixed results. Starring Nic Cage, film follows Cage's hit-man to Bangkok where he is to complete a number of hits. He tells us via narration that he has a set of rules that he follows so as to survive in the "business". He then promptly breaks his own codes and his life comes under threat.That's pretty much it as regards plotting. The Pang's bring much visual style to the picture, and show themselves to be adept at action sequences, but it all feels so familiar. Action movies are rarely going to bring new stuff to the table, they often, as is the case here, are kinetic popcorn pictures missing some emotional depth to marry up with the carnage. Thus this is not a film to be sought out by any action junkies looking for something new to add to their collections. As it happens Cage is fine and broody, managing to blend hard ass machismo with vulnerable traits. He, and the filmic style make it above average, even if ultimately it's instantly forgettable afterwards. 6/10

BANGKOK DANGEROUS.It was good, but not brilliant.There are 2 problem I have with this movie really... 1) I am not a huge fan of Nicolas Cage. All of his roles are the same. He can't change his character. But he has made some fantastic films. My favourite Nicolas Cage film is Face Off. 2) I don't know why all these films have to me remade. I love some Asian films yet a lot of them have been remade... and they are never better than the originals. Prime example is Ring... I love the Asian version, but I hated the American version. They murdered that movie.But, this remake was pretty good. It was entertaining and full of action. The action scenes were really well put together, and the hits Nicolas makes in the film were shot brilliantly.The film is about an assassin who has his own set of rules... all of a sudden he decides to break all his own rules in one go, while still doing the jobs.Nicolas Cage was OK in it, but like I said before, he didn't change anything from his last few roles... except his silly haircut in this. It really does not suit him. Haha!I have seen the original, but it was many years ago and don't remember too much about it. But I will watch it again soon so I can compare again.I like the supporting cast though. Shahkrit Yamnarm who plays Nicolas' sidekick was good and the leading ladies were convincing. Especially Charlie Yeung who plays Nicolas' love interest. I actually felt sorry for her.I give this movie a 7 out of 10.Good film, but i honestly think Nicolas Cage was not the best choice.For more of my movie reviews, please check out my Facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl

The cover doesn't tell the entire story. Just as the olde saying you can't judge a book by its cover comes into play, thus the same addage plays with this movie. It was more a romance mixed with a action, though not much action...it was all killing, a few kills here and there..not like the hit-man movie.... totally not worth watching..enough said..Nicholas Cage's worst movie I've seen. It said he produced part of it, however. I am going to go back and watch the other one, the original movie, and compare it to this. I guarantee the older one is better. I love action movies, and during this one, I was bored in parts. The only part that snagged me was when he fell in love with that girl. I for one did not think the plot tied together well. I see why they didn't receive the cashflow coming back that they put into the movie. So sad wasting money to make this movie. They could've used the money to charity or something like that.