The Replacement Killers Review
by "Serdar Yegulalp" (syegul AT cablehouse DOT dyn DOT ml DOT org)April 6th, 1998
The Replacement Killers (1998)
* * * 1/2
A movie review by Serdar Yegulalp
Copyright 1998 by Serdar Yegulalp
CAPSULE: Perversely entertaining Hong Kong action with the God of Gamblers himself, Chow Yun-Fat. Mira Sorvino ain't bad either, but the main attraction is the movie's glossy look.
Chow Yun-Fat commands the screen the way very few actors do, no matter where they're from. See him in the dozens of other movies he's done for the Hong Kong studios (and hang yourself if you haven't seen him in John Woo's masterpieces THE KILLER and HARD-BOILED). He is one of the few cult-movie figures who lives up to and beyond the hype. In THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS, he strides onscreen as if just coming in from another HK production without losing a beat.
HK fan that I am, I held my breath in anticipation of this movie for quite some time. THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS was designed to be Chow's big U.S. debut vehicle, but it also serves as the debut for director Antoine Fuqua (whose only previous directorial job was the "Gangster's Paradise" video for Coolio). Both director and actor have veteran confidence in this movie, which helps to buoy it all up out of the routine and into the realm of the special.
The plot is not the main attraction. Chow plays a hitman who crumbles when faced with the prospect of having to ice a policeman, and decides to flee the country. To that end, he enlists Mira Sorvino's character -- a tattooed forgery artist who lives in an apartment that looks like a close cousin to the one J.F. Sebastian inhabited in BLADE RUNNER. Then bad guys with tons of firepower come gunning for both of them, and they have to hit the road.
Fuqua knows his HK action staples. The movie is saturated with highly choreographed violence. The whole movie glows and glitters: shattering glass, guns blazing, false-color shots from *inside* a gun as a round is chambered. Sparks shoot as high-tension lines give when bodies fall on them. Metal crumples as cars slam into each other, reflecting the moody green-and-yellow lighting in an underground parking garage. Sunglasses glint. Put simply, if you don't like movies where these things all figure in abundance, stay home. If you do, buy three copies. You'll wear them all out soon enough.
Chow and Sorvino's characters do not like each other very much -- it's hard to like someone who seems to be responsible for getting your place torched -- but they form a mutual respect which is credible on-screen, and work together to get themselves out of trouble. There's also a good supporting role by Michael Rooker (remember him from HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER?) as a cop who tries to put everything together from the outside, and yet another wonderfully stolid bad-guy role courtesy of Jurgen Prochnow.
THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS is all surface, but it's a wonderful surface to look at. Good show all around. Now let's see Chow -- and Fuqua -- in something a little more substantial. I *know* Chow can handle it.
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