The Replacement Killers

Yun-Fat Chow ( John Lee) and Mira Sorvino(MegCoburn)(Paul Sorvino’s daughter and former star of "The Guiding Light TVSeries ‘52) burned up and exploded the entire film without even taking offtheir clothes. The photography was fantastic, showing scenes of Chineseculture in San Francisco’s Chinatown along with a boat ride down SanFranciso’s Bay near the Golden Gate Bridge and the container shipyards. Meg Coburn had her phony passport business blown away and her skirt seemedto get shorter and shorter in each scene. There was a great scene in a CarWash with all the brushes spinning and plenty of bullets flying all over theplace. This is a NO STOP ACTION FILM, which is just what you are going tosee, there really is no room to be critical about this film, just sit backand try to keep up with all the action if you can!

…. Though I guess that really shouldn`t be taken as a terrible criticism .After all John Woo appears in the credits as executive producer so you knowwhat to expect , you know that the man walking through the disco floor inthe opening sequence is going to get into a shoot out and you know what typeof shoot out he`s going to get involved with . That`s right one of thoseshoot outs where he flings his coat off , turns 360 degrees fires his gun ina ridiculously held manner , throws it away ( Even though there`s no wayhe`s used up all the rounds ) pulls out another gun and kills even more badguys

As I said it`s not really a criticism but like a Jerry Bruckheimerproduction I do get bored with these type of balletic choreography actionscenes rather quickly . Impressive first few times you see them , boring bythe time you get to the millionith time , and as you can imagine everythingis style over substance with people running around in slo-mo dodging bulletsthat seem to explode with everything they come into contact with

I will give the producers some credit for making a serious revenge flickthat tries to paint the characters as something more than just onedimensional cyphers , but like I said I`ve seen too many of these type ofaction sequences to still be impressed by them

Now I’ve seen some of Chow Yun-Fat’s Hong Kongese movies and I canunderstand why he’s so popular there. Some of his movies are really good.BUT this. What the heck was this movie anyways. The worst movie I ever sawin my life. It had no plot, no real story, just something even I couldhavemade up in 5 minutes, no good action , no acting, NOTHING. It sucked. Ifyoulike PURE action and nothing else. And I mean ‘nothing else’ then watchthis.But let me warn you. I’m very tolerant with movies. I love many actionmovies with no meaning at all, but this movie sucked too much. And theaction scenes also sucked. IT SUCKS.

The Replacement Killers is an average action movie. I happened to like it alot, but upon reflection, it is not the movie, but the stars, Chow Yun-Fatand Mira Sorvino, that make this movie so likeable. Sorvino is a highercalibre actress than most action films can boast. She is an oscar winner fora reason.

But Chow Yun-Fat!! I know that he has better films to his credit, but thiswas my first time to watch him and I watched this film three times,virtually back to back. He is the epitome of cool. I will see his otherfilms (John Woo’s "The Killer" is next on my list), but if nothing else, TheReplacement Killers has introduced Chow to moviegoers, like myself, thathave yet to see him act. I have a new film idol. And he is cool.

Lousy, worthless, dull, stupid, meaningless, insipid, weak, childish,wasted…. there are many ways to label this movie. But the most importantone is: meaningless. This film has absolutely no point whatsoever - at leastnot an intelligible one. I feel like I’ve seen most of the action a milliontimes, there is NOTHING special about it, and there are lots of films wherethe action is a hell of a lot niftier and cooler. And with that said, thisfilm becomes really, really, really bad.

It wouldn’t have gained publicity at all if there weren’t the possibility toslap a "John Woo"-label on it, and the lengths one has to go to, to actuallysee anything worthwhile in this film makes one wonder: is there a specialplace some movie directors go as pilgrims to learn How To Make John WooFlicks or is this just another piece of trash that should’ve stayed onpaper? If this Woo-school really is, well then this film sure is afreshman’s job.

When the baddest of the bad guy’s bad guys can’t kill the good guy, theycall in the "replacement killers" which makes them even badder. Of course,the hero then proceeds to "take out" the "replacement killers" and presto;he’s now the baddest dude on the planet. In "The Replacement Killers", Chow,the hero, teams up with Sorvino to take on a few regiments of assortedpock-marked faced villains in a series of fire fights with pauses in betweenwhere the meager story telling happens. Stylish, slick, and packing a magnumwallop, what this flick lacks in story it makes up for in spent brass andhot lead. A good action watch but don’t expect any major stunts,pyrotechnics, vehicle chases, sex or nudity.

When police officer Zedkov kills the son of Chinese crime lord Terence Weihe becomes a target of professional hitman John Lee. However when facedwith having to kill Zedkov’s seven year old son, Lee backs out and preparesto flee the wrath of Wei. Going to Meg Coburn for a passport is the settingfor an ambush where Lee and Meg escape together, both targets of Wei’s associates. The stakes are upped when replacement hitmen are brought in tokill Meg, Zedkov’s son and Lee.

Already a global star due to the iconic films and choreographed violence ofJohn Woo films, Chow Yun Fat came to America, had English lessons and wasput in a film that copies the formulae that had made him a huge success. The plot here is similar to that of The Killer, in that a hitman is crossedby his employers with the end result being gun fights a plenty. However thethemes running through that film are absent here and noise and actionreplaces them. That doesn’t mean that the film isn’t good, but rather thanbe different it feels like an average retread of the Hong Kongformula.

The action scenes are good without being great, lacking the flair of his HKwork. Partly this can be put at Fuqua’s door. Even with Woo as executiveproducer Fuqua can match the master for this sort of stuff. They areexciting but where in the same way that Woo’s first US film (Hard Target)felt like it was watered down, so too does this film feel like HK actiondone for a teenage American audience.

Fat is an excellent actor of great range but this film seems scared to havehim do anything beyond diving around with guns. His English dialogue islimited to a few lines at a time and any more detailed scenes are carried insubtitles. However in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Fat could not speakmandarin and had to learn his lines phonetically – he can speak English hereso why not trust him enough to speak it. Sorvino is OK but her character isa little bit of a cliché and is a tough chick side kick at best. Rooker isalright but lacks screen time or a character to speak of. Likewise Prochnowis just a bad guy sidekick with little to do.

In HK Fat had great roles in ultra-stylish violent ballets with Woo. In hisfirst American film he has a standard American actioner which owes a lot toHK but never reaches the impact of those films at their best. Worst thanthat he is not allowed to act beyond limited dialogue and gun play. Is thisfilm bad? No, it is just quite average for anyone who has seen any of theWoo/Fat collaborations from HK although for an American action film this ispretty good value for 85 minutes.

Chow Yun-Fat stars as John Lee an assassin who bulks at killing a kid for amobster (Kenneth Tsang) who becomes
a target when the replacement killerscome to finish his job, he teams up with a forger Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino)while they run for their lives in this sub par and empty actioner. I guessmy mistake was expecting much more from CYF’s American debut, because Don"The Dragon" Wilson could star in the movie in CYF’s part, and the moviewould have turned out the same. Too much style and not enough substance makeThe Replacement Killers a movie better left replaced.

The Replacement Killers is as mindless, senseless, tasteless, worthless amovie as you will ever watch on the big screen. It consists essentially ofone huge shoot-out which is interrupted a couple of times in order to givethe characters the opportunity to walk from one building to the next or toexchange a few comments on the last shoot-out or the one that’s going totake place within a couple of minutes. If you love the sound of machineguns, this is definitely your movie. If not, beware!

This movie has almost no plot, and so it relies on an almost endless seriesof shootouts to make up its hour and a half length. Don’t get me wrong, Ilike a good action shooter film, but this just isn’t one of them. Thetrailers for the film touted Academy Award winner Sorvino, but her actingcontribution is non-existent. This one isn’t even worth arental.