Nicolas Cage stars in the new international thriller Bangkok Dangerous new in theaters this weekend. Before we begin, this is not light hearted movie viewing.
Right up front, BD has it problems and does have some plot holes. I know this movie did not screen for critics beforehand, so I was strapped in for anything. Cage can hit a home run at the movies or he can foul one off his foot, you just never know. As I buckled in, and took it in, I found that BD is not the mess it very well could have been.
Cage plays a big-time international, highly trained assassin. He really has no name, friends, or a life. But he is on the edge of losing his assassins edge. Jobs are becoming more difficult from his moral compass. He travels to Bangkok, Thailand to pull off 4 assassinations. He is hired by terrible people to knock off 4 targets from various walks of life, both good and bad. He hires on a local "messenger" which is standard in his line of work and pays him well. The messenger ends up being Cages' student of killing, something Cage he has never done before.
Cage also is lonely. He meets a stunningly beautiful young Thai woman at the local pharmacy. They fall for each other and that plot is thickened by the fact the she is deaf. Interesting twist. She's deaf, and they wouldn't speak the same language if she could hear. Their communication is hard, but they muddle through. She is young and vulnerable with the look that she has never had anyone interested in her before. These two "misfits" develop a pretty nice chemistry. Albeit, she has no idea what he does for a living. This is the best part of BD. In a movie shrouded with death and gun play, it softens up a bit to bring a real nice perspective on who he really is. Sadly, there is not enough of this in BD. The plot line as abandoned to a degree and that's a shame.
Toss in a totally too long gunfight near the end, mix it all up....and you actually DO have a pretty decent flick. I'm not going haywire here, BD does have problems and some holes but it's not a wasted time at the movies. I've been to far worse this summer. BD is a dark, almost morose movie that is intense in almost every regard. I wouldn't go on a first date to BD, but for real movie goers this is do-able.
I was braced for the worst, and didn't get it. Bangkok Dangerous. Somehow, someway this movie worked for me.
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