Bangkok Dangerous isn't as deadly as advertised.

I will admit to being a sucker for Nicholas Cage films. The first if which that I can remember being Raising Arizona. As much as people try and typecast Nick Cage as a hack and star of shitty movies, when you analyze the entirety of his work, it just doesn't hold weight. He did Leaving Las Vegas, which was phenomenal. Even some of his more mediocre fare such as Matchstick Men wasn't as bad many detractors made it out to be. The guy has chops. Of course, I'm not oblivious to the complete shit-fests that he's done, like Ghostrider. Still, I'm willing to give a fair shake.

Bangkok Dangerous, for all it's positive story elements, just doesn't hold together, leaving Nick Cage's performance shallow and fundamentally underwhelming.

It's not so much that it's a bad film. It does fall prey to a lot cliches, such as washed-out and muted coloring brought on by the use of green filters. This isn't bad in itself, except the intensity in which it is applied falls flatter with the heavier applications.

The story is 100% solid. It is entertaining, but may be considered slow for those looking for a pure action film. While I don't want to delve into specifics, it involves the cliche of the seasoned veteran assassin compromising the values that have kept him safe. This includes teaching his ways to a young upstart, as well as falling in love with a random girl he meets by pure happenstance. Naturally, these things cannot go well, and all of these actions are predicated on this mission (well, series of missions) being his last before he cashes in and retires. There are some good scenes, but the whole underlying plot is incredibly shallow and feels like something that an old NES game would be built off of rather than a AAA feature film.

The main problem with the film lies specifically in Nick Cage. He comes across as a character we've seen way too many times before with nothing at all new to bring to the table. Which could be fine, except that his performance is just very underwhelming. When he's is supposed to be jaded he looks mildly miffed, when he's supposed to be angry he only looks annoyed. It is as if Cage is purposefully notching down the emotions of his character. In the end, it just comes across as Cage "doing another job", which is what his character, but not he himself, is supposed to be doing. Towards the latter part of the film the character springs a little bit more to life, but by this time you're either committed to seeing the film through to the end or have already stopped watching. By the finale, the film is simply flaccid and so run dry that it leaves little to no impact.

The directions is "by the books" and there's not much to really talk about. Nothing phenomenal nor nothing truly detracting. It's a solid enough job, but it leaves you wishing there was at least some kind of flair or a sense of unique style. Actually, there a scant few scenes that do leave you on the edge of your seat, but they are too few and to far between. The action scenes are well done, at least for a film that is meant to be more suspense-spy oriented, but the sometime deviate into almost Bond-like over the top bits that quickly slink back into the range of stealth assassin. At times the time-line seemingly jerks quickly and you're left with a void of character development and interaction that can be detracting, but is eventually made up elsewhere. It leaves these montages, unfortunately, ringing hollow. However, when the scenes do work, they work incredibly well and are rather invigorating. Which is good, but during the down moments, it rings all too hollow. This is rung especially true during the final moments of the film where it leaves the viewer feeling as if the writers and director didn't know where to go, so they thought to do a cheap rip off of The Professional, but it winds up completely lacking the emotional depth and backstory that made Jean Reno's performance so memorable.

In the end, Bangkok Dangerous isn't a bad film, but not a good one. I can't see myself ever actually buying the film, though I do think it is decent enough for a rental. Much the same way as Wesley Snipe's Rising Sun was worth a rental, but worthy of mocking if actually purchased for repeated viewing. If you don't hate Nick Cage and you're okay with slow-paced sniper/action movies, you won't be horribly disappointed. However, if you're trying to compare this to something high caliber (pun intended) like The Professional, you will be horribly let down by this cheap knockoff.