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Bangkok Dangerous

Bangkok DangerousIt's been a long time since I've blogged about a movie in this fashion. Hopefully, this new version of my blog won't degenerate into nothing more than a movie-reaction-fest. That's not what it's meant to be.

In any case, I watched this last night. It's one of six movies I recently rented (so, yeah, you are going to see a short spate of movie-related posts over the next few days). Bangkok Dangerous was not as good as I'd heard it was. Not in my opinion, anyway.

For a paid assassin, Joe, played by Nicolas Cage, is too damned soft-hearted (not to mention too easily swayed from the principles he espouses at the beginning of the movie). I suppose that this is meant to be his character's fatal flaw, but it comes across as too convenient. The ending has a satisfying twist, I'll admit, but Cage has done better.

I've a soft-spot for movies that take place in Thailand since I lived there during my early teens. I like it when I can see not only parts of Bangkok that I know, but parts that I don't know, as well. Including the famous Floating Market, however, has become cliché in movies. The James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun (released in 1974) included a scene in the Floating Market, but it also included a scene in the old Chok Chai building, where my father used to work, a scene my father saw filmed live. Bangkok Dangerous does include more than just the Floating Market, but if you're going to focus on scenes that are tourist attractions, then why not include the beaches? Why not include Chiang Mai? I've not seen any movies that include scenes of Chiang Mai.

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