The Replacement Killers Review
by Michael Babitsky (djfury AT worldnet DOT att DOT net)January 20th, 1998
Replacement Killers
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Mira Sorvino, and Michael Rooker
2/4 stars
A review by Michael Babitsky
Replacement Killers marks the American debut of Chow-Yun Fat. For those not familiar with his work, he has been in the business (TV and Film) for a long time. Most famous in America for his work with John Woo: The Killer, A Better Tomorrow 1 and 2, and Hard Boiled, Chow's repertoire is not in any way restricted to action films. He has been in many comedies and dramas as well: Hong Kong 1941, God of Gamblers, and All About Ah-Long (for which he won a Best Actor award) are some of his best work in those areas.
Chow, in my opinion, is one of the greatest actors who ever lived and the fact that Chinese is not my native tongue probably adds more to that title. He was made for the camera.
Now, it's true that Chow is amazing in gun-toting action roles, mainly because of his incomparable coolness and charisma. It's a fact that no one looks better than Chow with a gun in each hand, therefore it was inevitable that Chow's first dive into American cinema would be an action film.
Replacement Killers is not, in any way, a bad movie. The best way to describe it would be painfully mediocre.
The movie starts off well. A man is being chased through the streets, and is captured and killed by a cop. It turns out that he was the child of a very powerful man (Kenneth Tsang). That powerful man wants revenge, the cop must be killed. Enter John Li (Chow Yun-Fat). John is told that he must kill the cop's son and this will be his last job. Well, John can't kill him because he has a heart of gold. So, instead of killing the boy, he basically ruins the rest of his life putting himself and his family in danger.
John needs a fake passport to China, and is sent to Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino), bad guys come to kill her and John, and they fail. The rest is pretty predictable.
Chow's English is great. He has two 'speeches' in the movie and they are both well-delivered. However, when he speaks in short sentences he sounds stiff.
Well, action movies such as this are not often hailed for their intriguing character development. What usually separates the good from the ugly in this genre is style. Fuqua (whose only credit is directing Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise music video) handles the direction nicely. The action scenes, for the most part, look good, but never really become tense or exciting. The main characters are 2-dimensional and the bad guys, even more-so. There are quite a few memorable scenes, though. A short gun fight in a movie theater was nice. Chow with a gun in both hands shooting down a car going in reverse was definitely cool. There is also an interesting use of colors, neon greens, reds…, etc. There are quite a few HK movie influences here, and when Fuqua gets creative, the result is excellent; but, there is not enough originality in this movie. The atmosphere is cold and humorless, and any emotion seems out of place. Chow has an incredible smile, but this film never lets him use it.
The print I saw had no music, and a good score could definitely help the movie out.
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