| Bangkok Dangerous | |
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Teaser release poster |
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| Directed by | Pang Brothers |
| Produced by | Nicolas Cage Norman Golightly William Sherak Jason Shuman |
| Written by | Pang Brothers |
| Screenplay by | Jason Richman |
| Narrated by | Nicolas Cage |
| Starring | Nicolas Cage Charlie Yeung Chakrit Yamnam |
| Music by | Brian Tyler |
| Cinematography | Decha Srimantra |
| Editing by | Mike Jackson Curran Pang |
| Studio | Initial Entertainment Group Virtual Studios Saturn Films |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
| Release date(s) | September 5, 2008 |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$45 million[1] |
| Box office | US$42,486,154 |
Bangkok Dangerous is a 2008 crime film written and directed by the Pang Brothers, and starring Nicolas Cage. It is a remake of the Pangs' 1999 debut film of the same name, a Thai film, for which Cage's production company, Saturn Films, purchased the remake rights.[2] Known by its working title, Big Hit in Bangkok,[3] and also as Time to Kill, it began filming in Bangkok in August 2006, with locations that include Soi Cowboy.[4][5]
The film was financed by Initial Entertainment Group, with Lionsgate acquiring its North America distribution rights.[6] The film was released in North America on September 5, 2008.
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Hitman Joe goes to Bangkok for a month-long assignment, to kill four people for Bangkok ganglord Surat.
He hires pickpocket Kong as his go-between, a condition of the contract being that the gang will never meet Joe. Contracts from the Bangkok gangsters go through Kong via a nightclub dancer, Aom, who becomes romantically involved with Kong.
Joe's first execution is done in traffic with him riding a bike and stopping in front of the car. He then shoots the target with a machine pistol. His second target is a gangster/sexual predator who buys girls from the North away from their parents at a very young age and sells them for sex. Joe sneaks into the penthouse and kills the target by drowning him in the pool.
Originally he plans to kill Kong before he leaves but after Kong gives him information about the second target he begins to train Kong. For the third execution Kong assists Joe, the kill does not go as planned, with the target nearly getting away before Joe catches him and shoots him after a chase in front of many shocked onlookers. Before the third kill the gang attempt to identify Joe, he warns them off.
His fourth target is the Prime Minister of Thailand. Joe is about to make the kill when he has second thoughts, is spotted, and escapes through a panicking crowd. Joe is now a target and is attacked at his house by four gang members. He manages to use explosives to take them out and is faced with the choice of rescuing Kong or leaving the country unharmed. Joe decides to rescue Kong, so he sets off to the gang's headquarters with one of the half-alive attackers who was injured in the explosion at Joe's safe house.
Joe goes to the gang's headquarters, kills most of the gang and saves Kong and Aom. The fearful gang leader flees to his car with three other accomplices. Joe spots him and shoots the gang members at the front of the car dead. After one of the gang in back of the car attempts to run to safety, Joe kills him. Joe gets into the back seat with Surat, the gang leader.
As the police arrive at the location, Joe is again in a difficult situation; he decides to use his last remaining bullet to kill himself by putting both his and Surat's heads together. Joe then puts the gun up to his temple and pulls the trigger, killing himself and Surat.
The original film's main character is a deaf hitman, whose disability makes him a fearless, unflinching gunman. That character has been changed in the remake. "We'd like to keep him the same, but we understand that from a marketing point of view Nic needs to have some lines," Oxide was quoted as saying in the New York Times. "So what we’re going to do is transform his girlfriend instead into a deaf-mute. This switch will maintain the drama of communication between the two main characters."[7]
The film received mixed to negative reviews, with many feeling the remake was not as half as good as the original. As of December 13, the film has a 9% approval rating based on 86 reviews from critics at the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.[8] Based on the bloody finale and depressing conclusion, Ross Fleming, British reviewer in Hong Kong, sarcastically referred to the film as 'the feel-good movie of the year'. At the website Metacritic, which utilizes a normalized rating system, the film earned a rating of 24 out of 100 based on 16 reviews.[9]
The film has grossed US$40,732,950, of which $15,298,133 was from the US.[1] However, the film grossed US$7.8 million on its opening weekend making this the first film since Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star to debut at number 1 with such a low gross. Lionsgate distribution topper Steve Rothenberg said, "It will be a nicely profitable film for us."[10]
Bangkok Dangerous was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 6, 2009. As of December 1, 2009, 760,178 units have been sold, gathering US$15,058,164 in revenue.[11]
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