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Nicolas Cage finds the going gets a little tough in Bangkok Dangerous |
Cage staggers from one action film to another
BANGKOK DANGEROUS
Directed by Oxide Pang Chan
Certificate 18
I CAN’T help but watch Nic Cage films with a pang of misty eyed nostalgia for the days when he made such works as Red Rock West or Raising Arizona.
Oh how I long for his straggly, I’ve-just-woken-up hairdo, his quiet tones and his poor attempts to suppress his wide-eyed surprise at the fact he has been cast alongside Dennis Hopper.
His conversion into dirty vest-wearing tough guy is a grave disappointment, and is compounded by the fact he is now reduced to making flicks like these.
But while Bangkok Dangerous is essentially tough-guy nonsense, there is a chink of light. In its defence, it’s not half as bad as Face Off, Snake Eyes, Gone In Sixty Seconds or Ghost Rider, and maybe Cage has finally reached the very bottom of action films. Surely, now, Nic, things can only get better?
Cage is John London, an assassin sent to Bangkok to eliminate four people. He arrives with a very large gun, a number of different aliases and an admirable work ethic. He appears to get job satisfaction from his hunting trips, but is a little lonely.
Things don’t go quite to plan for our hero. First, he falls for a local lass and then develops a friendship with a petty crook he enlists to help his stay more enjoyable. For a man who likes to come in, shoot someone, and sneak off again, this was not what the job description entailed.
The brothers Pang who directed this flick originally made it in 1999 and have returned to the tale armed with bigger bangs. But even the backdrops of a bustling Oriental city are a little worn. We’ve seen the madcap crowds through the Far East through the eyes of the Hong Kong movie-makers who brought us such flicks as the early Jackie Chan Police Story series, and then through Hollywood’s hijacking of the likes of John Woo.
It means that, despite the directors creating a colourful Asian stage, it’s nothing we haven’t done before, and that is essentially the same for the entire film. We’ve been here, and done that. |
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