eric262003 Review of The Replacement Killers

The Replacement Killers (1998)

Impressive American Debut for Chow Yun-Fat

[7/10 · 24 October 2020]

The realization that there is something innately cockeyed about The Replacement Killers sets in with the awareness that the movie isn't about what its title indicates: The lead characters portrayed by Asian action hero Chow Yun-Fat and Mira Sorvino are actually the targets of the titular assassins. A Westernization of the Hong Kong movies of Chow, here making his American film debut, and exec producers John Woo and Terence Chang, this mechanical effort is studied rather than heartfelt and will disappoint aficionados and thwart potential fans. Result will be tepid box office returns (in 1998 from the moment was released it was a disappointment in the Far East where it opened), with limited play. Follow-up ancillaries should be okay, but it remains a niche genre item. Chow is on familiar ground as John Lee, a hired gun with a debt to pay to Manhattan-transplanted Asian crime czar Terence Wei (Kenneth Tsang). His final mission is to murder the seven-year-old boy of the cop (Michael Rooker) responsible for the death of Wei's son during a botched drug transaction. However, in as sequence that seems like a variation on the opening scene of Woo's Face/Off, when he has the boy in his sights, a crisis of conscience prevents him from pulling the trigger. Lee knows his decision will make him a target of whoever is brought in to finish the job. He also realizes that his mother and young sister back in Shanghai are living on borrowed time. On the way to the airport for his return to China , he contacts master forger Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino) to get a phony passport. But before the rush job is ready, Wei's trigger men descend and Lee and Coburn begin their long flight, pursued through New York discos, restaurants and a car wash. First time feature director Antoine Fuqua, a hot music video and commercials director, and script writer Ken Sanzel have obviously studied every slow-motion sequence and violently choreographed ballet of blood Hong Kong has served up in recent years. While an apt homage, the set pieces here are technical but not visceral, feeling menu fractured rather than originally integrated into the plot. The performances too, have a rote quality. Chow shot much in the way that catapulted him to stardom in Woo's films, The Killers and A Better Tomorrow. He's an elegant, soulful presence with a heart-beating behind those cold eyes, a man who conveys the instincts and nine lives of a cat. But still he needs significant quality time with a voice coach to have a prayer of a career beyond the former Crown Colony. Sorvino is once again in much form, though for most of the picture's running time, she fires off rounds of ammunition without coming close to doing physical injury. She has the requisite humor but lacks the flinty quality necessary for the role. The supporting players are good in undemanding parts, but it's a disappointment to see German star Til Schweiger's talents squandered in the thankless role of one of the title characters. Fuqua directs The Replacement Killers with a glee of a big, loud music video that's not particularly interested in content. It's a rudderless style piece; as the old saw cautions, accept no substitutes.