"Bangkok Dangerous" Movie review

Written by Sean McBride

Monday, 08 September 2008

The most dangerous thing about “Bangkok?” Nicolas Cage’s hair. “Bangkok Dangerous” Lionsgate Films Directed by Danny and Oxide Pang Starring Nicolas Cage, Shahkrit Yamnarm and Charlie Young Rated R   1 ½ Stars         Nicolas Cage can be fun to watch in the right movie, but lately he’s been picking mediocre material and making it worse with his particularly distracting brand of oddball acting. It’s not really a surprise that his latest film, “Bangkok Dangerous” is another exercise in so-so cinema. Cage plays an assassin known only as Joe. He is in town to kill four men and despite his personal rules about getting involved with the locals, he decides to pass the time between murders by mentoring a local pickpocket (Shahkrit Yamnarm) and romancing a deaf shop girl (Charlie Young). These two new people in his life will cause Joe to rethink the whole assassin-for-hire career. Naturally his employer is not happy about Joe’s sudden attack on conscience and quickly sends in armed thugs to teach Joe a deadly lesson about betrayal. Ultimately, it all comes down to a series of gun battles that don’t really add up to much. There are some moments of artistic, John Woo-wannabe violence; my favorite is a gunfight in a factory that is inexplicably bathed in red and blue light. The shoot out is pretty standard stuff, but it certainly looks cool when a water bottle explodes in a slow-motion red spray. Give directors Danny and Oxide Pang credit for at least trying to make the film into a stylized action romp. And take credit away from Nicolas Cage, who turns in such a laconic performance that he comes across as a sleepwalking killer. He must be asleep, how else could you explain his atrocious haircut? I know that it’s petty to point out an actor’s haircut, especially when there are so many other elements worth criticizing, but Cage’s hair is so distracting that it will pull you out of the story. You now that your movie has major problems when a bad wig is the most memorable part of the film.  “Bangkok Dangerous” is another sad misfire for Cage, but don’t feel too sorry for the actor. He has no fewer than nine films slated for release next year. Odds say that one of those films just has to be a hit. This film however, is a major miss.  Movie reviews by Sean, “The Movie Guy,” are published Wednesdays and Fridays in “The Port Arthur News.” He can be found weekly on KAVU-TV, KFDM-TV, and KVIC Radio. Additional reviews can be found at www.rottentomatoes.com, www.panews.com or at www.myvictoriaonline.com. Sean welcomes your comments via email at smcbride@kavutv.com.