Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Bangkok Dangerous (2008) - The Pang brothers drop Cage in a rickety remake

6/17/2018

Bangkok Dangerous (2008) - The Pang brothers drop Cage in a rickety remake

♥♥

+ Worst Poster of the Year

If you look at this poster for the Pang brothers' Bangkok Dangerous and wonder; one of Nicholas Cage's seems to be holding a gun that is missing, and the other is bizarrely creeping into his jacket, apparently going for his opposite armpit, - you are not alone. The poster ranks as one the all-time strangest and worst cases of poster graphics foul-up

Our mostly silent hitman hero Joe has some disciplinary rules set for his work, but now as he finds himself in Bangkok, Thailand, he breaks these rules as he carries out jobs.

Bangkok Dangerous is a remake of Bangkok Dangerous (1999), written by Jason Richman (Swing Vote (2008)) and directed by brothers Danny and Oxide Chun Pang (Out of Inferno/Tao Chu Sheng Tian (2013), both), who are remaking their own first film.
The Pang brothers have an unmistakable knack for staging exciting action scenes, - in particular the boat scenes are good here, - but the film's plot does not match this quality. Nicolas Cage's (National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)) romantic scenes with Joe's deaf-mute love interest Fon (played by Charlie Yeung (Sleepwalker/Meng You (2011)) are actually touching and fine, - but they seem like they arrive from out of another film.
Bangkok Dangerous has real Thai flavors, - but it is also undeniably a plate of simplistic action romance nonsense. SPOILER It ends unusually, as Cage blows his own brains out!

Related posts:

The Pang brothers: 2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
The Eye 2/見鬼2/Gin3 Gwai2 2 (2004) or, Women: Screaming and Crying

Watch some interesting behind-the-scenes footage from the film's Bangkok shoot here

Cost: 45 mil. $
Box office: 42.4 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Bangkok Dangerous premiered 22 August (Spain) and runs 100 minutes. Cage's production company Saturn Films had purchased the remake rights to the original film. The original's mute hero was changed for "a marketing point of view", Oxide Pang has explained, and the deaf-mute love interest was created instead. Shooting took place in Thailand, including in Bangkok, and in Prague, the Czech Republic from August 2006 - ?, making the film's post production period suspiciously long. The film opened #1 to a 7.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, the lowest #1 first weekend gross there since David Spade-comedy Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003). It fell out of the top 5 in its second week and grossed a weak 15.2 mil. $ (35.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia and Spain, each with 3.6 mil. $ (8.5 %). The home video release earned in excess of 15 mil. $ in North America, which, if added into the theatrical gross, would only change the film's status to that of 'big flop'. The Pang brothers returned solo in their native Hong Kong; Danny Pang with Seven 2 One (2009), Oxide Chun Pang with Basic Love (2009). Cage returned in Knowing (2009). Bangkok Dangerous is rotten at 8 % with a 3.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bangkok Dangerous?

No comments:

Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

6/17/2018

Bangkok Dangerous (2008) - The Pang brothers drop Cage in a rickety remake

No comments:

Post a Comment

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

My Blog List