When 007 becomes too hokey
The second week of school is greeted by “Bangkok Dangerous,” the story of an assassin who feels no pain except for when he falls for a local girl and becomes a defense teacher to a common thief.
This mixture of 007 and Mission Impossible has fast motorcycles, beautiful girls and fancy gadgets, but it is a poor rendition of a bad guy who wants to be good.
This film takes us to Bangkok, Thailand to perform a series of killings, which should be no problem for the professional Joe (Nicolas Cage).
But of course there is a trick; this assassin has formed a soft side for the local pharmacist, who happens to be deaf, and once she sees who he really is, she wants nothing to do with him.
Joe hires a local pocket picker named Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm) to run errands for him even though he plans to kill him when the killings are done. Fortunately for Kong, his life is sparred and Joe decides to train him to fight the men who hired him.
The amount of violence is astonishing and very little attention is given to the actual plot. There are many gaps or holes in this story that need to be filled, and though there are moments of humanity like petting a random elephant in the market street, there are not enough to make this movie for kids- at all.
There is some nudity, a ton of violence and weird curse words spoken by the thief who wants to be just like Joe because that’s the cool thing to do.
The ending is just as weird as the plot and the audience is left with nothing but questions. However, one does not leave wondering why the character does what he does, but rather why one has to pay $7.75 (student discount!) to see this cheesy Thai thug movie.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Katelyn Bell at Katelyn.Bell@Colorado.edu.
