Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

Starring: Nicolas Cage
Grade: C-

Bangkok Dangerous is not completely devoid of entertainment, but there’s a lot left to be desired.

Though at one point, someone’s hand gets cut off. That was pretty cool.

Summary

In Prague, we see professional hitman Joe (Cage) shoot someone from a distance, as the man is being interrogated by authorities. Following his mission, he kills the only person that knows him (a man he used as an assistant for the job), staging the man’s death as a heroin overdose after using a stun gun on him and injecting him with the drug. He then explains how he was taught four rules when he became a hitman:

1. Don’t ask questions. There is no such thing as right or wrong.
2. Don’t take an interest in people outside of work. There is no such thing as trust.
3. Erase every trace. Come anonymous and leave nothing behind.
4. Know when to get out. Just thinking about it means it’s time.

Lately, Joe has been leaning on that last rule pretty hard, though he wants one last job so he can ride off into the sunset with loads of cash. The job is four hits in one location. The location is Bangkok, Thailand. Joe is also completely alone and though he would like to meet someone, he’s used to it because that’s the nature of the business.

Something tells me that will change over the course of this story…

Elsewhere in Bangkok, the men that hired Joe discuss what they know about him, which isn’t much. All they know is that the Russians swear by him and the fact that they don’t know him and vice versa, makes this the perfect situation. Once Joe secures a safe spot to stay at for the time being, he goes out into the city to find an assistant for the job, a job that always ends with Joe killing the guy to cut off any loose ends. He sees a street peddler named Kong (Shahkrit Yamnam) scamming some American tourists. Quickly, he realizes Kong fits Joe’s criteria: he speaks a little bit of English, he wants to make money, and he’s disposable. Joe approaches Kong with a job offer, underselling the job majorly, saying all he has to do for a month is pick things up and drop them off. It will net him $2,000 a day. Kong initially doesn’t believe him, so they agree to $3,000. On top of that, Joe agrees to give him half up front and the other half at the end of the week. He stresses to Kong to come to the place he’s staying at alone, or he gets nothing. That night, he lays down the rules, and he’s very strict about it. Joe tells Kong to go to the Caribbean Club, ask for a dancer named Aom, hand her money with this red “X” label facing up, grab the package she gives him, and head straight back to Joe.

Everything goes smoothly at the club. However, when Kong tries to make it back on time to Joe’s, he runs a red light and gets chased by a cop. Since Joe wanted to see him in action, he witnesses the whole thing. Though Kong eludes the cop and is able to make it to Joe’s on time, he still doesn’t get paid because he involved the cop. Once Kong leaves, Joe opens the briefcase, looks at his new target’s picture, and burns it, leaving no trace. Later, Kong delivers another briefcase to Aom and flirts with her a little bit too. She delivers the briefcase to the guys hiring Joe, and it looks like he requested they send him heroin (to use to kill Kong once everything is over). Later that night, Kong delivers a briefcase to Joe. On the way out, he notes that the picture Joe has hanging on the wall is that of an elephant with his trunk pointing down. Apparently, this is a sign of bad luck. Regardless, Joe grabs his weapons from the briefcase and heads out. He kills his target with ease. Though on the drive back, he gets his arm cut on something sharp that this random street kid was holding while standing in the street. Because of this, he goes to a local pharmacy and one pharmacist approaches him as he’s looking. He asks her for help, but she just smiles at him, completely clueless. After seeing her co-worker talk to her, he finds out she’s deaf. She observes his wounds and recommends some medicine, miming out the directions on when and how many to take.

With this chance interaction, you can tell Joe is attracted to her.

After we see Kong and Aom’s relationship start to blossom (he even buys her jewelry), Kong is later attacked on one of his drops by a group of unknown assailants. They try to take the briefcase, but Kong is able to subdue them with his knife long enough to escape. Kong makes it back to Joe’s place, but he’s late and that’s the first thing Joe mentions. He does loosen up a bit once Kong tells him what just occurred beforehand. Still, Joe does get pissed after noticing that the case has been opened, something Joe made very clear should never happen. Joe sends Kong to the fridge to get a beer, so he can use it for the swelling on his face. As Kong does so, he asks Joe if he can teach him his ways, just as Joe puts a knife to his neck with the intent of killing him. Surprisingly, Joe turns him trying to kill Kong with a knife, into a self-defense lesson, having Kong use his hands to fight him off. Apparently, this was Kong’s official first lesson, starting his journey in becoming Joe’s protégé. School is in session, though Joe’s only got three more kills to go. At the same time, he tries to attract the deaf pharmacist.

For someone that has avoided people his whole life for a reason, Joe will soon learn that he was right to do so, as the trouble starts to follow.

My Thoughts:

Bangkok Dangerous is fairly average but has glimpses of something more than that.

One step in the right direction is Nicolas Cage’s role as Joe, the ice-cold killer. Playing the role of a hitman is a difficult one to play but not for the reasons you’re probably thinking. The main reason is because we’ve seen the role being played so many times, so similarly for that matter, that’s it’s hard to do anything that truly sets the character apart from other movie contract killers. Cage plays the role of the lone wolf killer easily, but you feel the same as Joe does with anyone he comes into contact with: you don’t get attached to him at all. Maybe this is what Cage wanted. It does go along with the character, and he definitely plays the role well, but I need to learn more about his background to get behind him.

One thing Cage does particularly well is showcasing Joe’s cold-hearted approach to life and general demeanor. You truly believe there’s nothing behind Joe’s eyes. It’s kill or be killed. Cage has his sitting expression and vibe down with how the character is written. He doesn’t want any connection with humans, forcing down any thoughts that remotely put him in the position of caring. The idea is to get the job done, kill any witnesses, and head on to the next one. It’s a lonely character, and he lives a lonely life. Because of this, the life of Joe makes sense and all because that’s the way he wants things. Unfortunately, it’s not that interesting. The only parts that grab your attention besides the action (which is admittedly subpar for a movie about a contract killer), are when Joe shows some type of emotion. For example, one job goes a little awry because the guys that employ him follow Kong, so he calls the guys and tells them that if he runs into a similar situation in the future, he’ll kill the main dude’s wife, plain and simple. Right after he says this, a red laser from his sniper is shown directly on the wife. Everything about that was badass, and it showed a lot about Joe when he’s asked to do more. I needed more stuff like that to keep my attention, as did Nicolas Cage. Sadly, the rest of the film is mostly Joe telling Kong he sucks at his job and him trying to communicate with this deaf woman he likes.

Now, this deaf woman’s presence is an interesting pickle Joe finds himself in, but it’s not executed very well at all. It should be a lot more entertaining when you consider the circumstances. The scenes involving the two should’ve been much quirkier. Considering this is kind of Nicolas Cage’s thing, this shouldn’t have been a problem. It’s odd that they didn’t go in that direction. I understand that the character of Joe isn’t like that, but the situation should’ve allowed Cage some room to have a little bit of fun. It’s very unfortunate how much they undersold the humor of the situation because it would’ve helped the film’s entertainment value immensely. The whole thing was way too awkward for me to care about the relationship. I should want it to work, but I never got invested in it. Humor would’ve been the answer. Another maddening part was the fact that the pharmacist’s co-worker spoke English. So, in their first meeting, why the fuck didn’t she come over and help Joe out with the conversation? Why didn’t she help her co-worker out since she was talking to a customer that clearly didn’t know sign language? Why couldn’t she accompany them on their date to help with any translation issues? Not only would this create for some much-needed humor, but it’s downright courteous and would’ve made sense if we’re supposed to feel like these people are somewhat realistic. If I was in Joe’s situation, there’s no way I don’t involve her co-worker in helping me.

Another thing that is played out is the teacher/student relationship that becomes the bulk of the movie. I wanted to like it, but there are a million similarly-themed movies that do it better and with better characters. This is mostly because I didn’t feel connected to Kong. First of all, I’m not sure why Joe is so accepting of Kong and trusts him enough to make him his student. Surely, he’s been asked to be a teacher before, so what does Kong show that makes him seem trustworthy, or worthy in general, to learn Joe’s skills? In a narration, we hear him say he didn’t kill Kong because he saw himself in him. How? What makes him like Joe? They are completely different people. Yeah, they’re both criminals, but the comparison ends there. It just proves to be more frustrating as time goes by because Joe never elaborates on this observation. Since we don’t know anything about Joe either, we just don’t give a fuck. He never touches the subject again and we’re just supposed to accept that Kong is a mini-Joe even though to the viewer that has just met these characters, they don’t seem alike whatsoever. Even as time goes by and they become better friends, it never crossed my mind once that they have similar traits as people.

Cage tries to keep the movie going, but he can only do so much.

The cinematography is that of a distinct “moody” look, but in some scenes, it makes Bangkok Dangerous look like a “B Movie” or a direct-to-video action movie. It looks dreadful. Along with that, when Joe gets his first kill in Bangkok, no one in the city reacts at all. He shoots the car up in the middle of an intersection, at a red light. How do we not hear one scream, or at least see one person drive off or run away? He shoots him and drives off with not a single issue! Now, I understand Joe is very good at his job, but it seems perplexing that this ultra-serious hitman would kill a guy in public. I feel like the one thing we have learned from hitman movies is that you want to go after the target when they are alone, unless you’re shooting from a distance. Shooting someone from a motorbike, at a close distance, in a crowded intersection, seems to be the exact opposite of what you want to do. Are they implying that Bangkok is really that careless, or is this just laziness from the Pang Brothers’ direction? I’m not sure who’s fault this is, but it seemed comically wrong. Cage’s hair is also super distracting. It makes him look like a vulture in the opening scenes until we get used to it later on.

One big saving grace of Bangkok Dangerous is the darkness of it all. The ultimate message is that though humanity can finally bring Joe a small bit of happiness, it also leads to his undoing, giving us a brutal ending that is intensely depressing, but fitting when we consider the whole. There’s a much nicer alternate ending that exists, but I prefer this version because not only was it highly memorable, but it also made the film stand out in a great way comparatively to the movies it seems to copy. For an action vehicle for star Nicolas Cage, Bangkok Dangerous has its moments. It’s brooding, it’s dark (literally and figuratively), and offers some nice location shots of Thailand. Nevertheless, this is a fairly forgettable thriller with a plot we’ve seen done better in much more entertaining films.

Once again, I do not blame Nicolas Cage.