Movie Review 8: Bangkok Dangerous - Hitman With Conscience

Title: Bangkok Dangerous

Director: The Pang Brothers

Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

Genre: Action, Drama

It has already became a pattern that whenever a movie portrays a hitman, it would be either they kill only the bad guys or the develop "fight evil" nature in the later stages of the movie. I supposed it is unacceptable for a main protagonist to be a heartless, cold killer. Bangkok Dangerous is another such movie.

It talks about a hitman who set certain rules for himself... only to break them all later when he met some random chick in a pharmacy store. I was like "duh" for the whole movie. Since the "chick" is dumb... dumb here being cannot speak... not stupid... it was kinda of a silent relationship for them. Their relationship blossomed at an amazing pace which is ridiculous for a normally shrewd and cautious killer.

I could not keep my eyeballs from turning heavenward when Joe (Nicholas Cage... the hitman) said that he did not kill Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm... Joe's delivery boy) as he usually does because he "saw" himself in Kong's eyes. That was like so blah!

Shahkrit Yamnarm however, is a little surprising. But then again, I did not keep tabs on actors from Thailand... he might have been already very famous in his homeland. At the beginning, he looked really like a crook... a pickpocket... shady kind of character. But suddenly, he is this justice fighting wannabe hitman. If only there're more scenes on him with his girlfriend...

Anyway, I might have been a little bit one-sided in my comments since I don't really like Nicholas Cage. Also, his portrayal of a hitman is just so... different. Basically, we usually have either a very cool hitman or a rugged looking down to earth type... however, with his receding hairline, long wavy, curly hair, pouty lips and eight figure eyebrows (meaning his eyebrows form the chinese figure of eight), he just doesn't have a convincing killer look... even when he was angry, or shooting like mad or tyring to be menacing.

Well, despite my scathing comments above, it is not exactly terrible... a little bit boring here and there, cliched here and there but at least I was awake for the whole movie :P.

Observation: What was Kong doing facing the river (I think) at the end of the movie? Usually, at these scenes, there would usually be a commentary that says he is learning to be a hitman or he is contend with a peaceful life... but nothing... just a scene of him looking at the river and poof... credits

Bottomline: Wait for 007.

Bamboo Ranking: 3.0 / 5.0