The Replacement Killers

Introduction

Chinese soldier John Lee (Chow Yun-Fat) is brought to America by Chinese gangster Terence Wei (Kenneth Tsang) and must do three jobs for him to be relinquished of his obligation. Lee is an accomplished assassin but has a problem with the final job, his mission is to kill the son of policeman Zedko (Michael Rooker) who killed Wei's son during a drugs raid. Wei's son had stupidly tried to shoot it out with Zedko and paid the price, but Wei wants revenge regardless.



Lee has the policeman's family in his telescopic sights, but cannot bring himself to end the life of a seven year old and knows that he must move quickly to avoid the wrath of Wei. Lee's concern is not for himself though, it's for his mother and sister still in China and under the watchful eye of Wei's accomplices in his home country. Lee must flee America and get back to China before Wei has them killed, but all Lee knows is Wei and his organisation. A soon-to-be-killed acquaintance of Lee points him in the direction of master forger Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino), who becomes a rather unwilling accomplice/hostage after Wei's men, led by his number two Kogan (Jürgen Prochnow), shoot up her office and proceed to chase the duo. This is further complicated when Wei orders some replacement killers (Til Schweiger and Danny Trejo) to both finish the job and take care of Lee.

What starts as a simple attempt to escape and make sure his family is safe changes when Coburn reminds him that stepping aside is as bad as pulling the trigger…

Visual

Picture is colourful, but is either filtered so that the Chinatown scenes are full of dark vibrant colours or looks almost bleached with a stark colouring scheme for the remainder of the time.

Audio

Nice surround track with subtitles, what more can you ask for?

Extras

Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood - nice twenty minute featurette produced for the film that looks upon introducing a huge Asian star to an American audience. Although his career in Asian film is referred to, only a brief clip from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is used other than clips from The Replacement Killers. What does come across quite well is just how humble such a huge star really is and just how surprised American film people can be to see true adulation of film stars when they travel to Asia. This to me is what makes the American film industry overall look so insular and disrespectful.

Where The Action Is - ten minute featurette on The Replacement Killers, some overlap from the other featurette here. Follows the general EPK rules, so nothing special really.

Overall

There are two films that I never tire of watching. The first is The Negotiator with Samuel L.Jackson and Kevin Spacey. The second is The Replacement Killers. I'm not sure why these two films have made a connection with me, but hey, that's just the way things fall sometimes. I used to rely on the old 2002 edition in clear hard plastic case but just recently I noticed a newer version with a slightly longer cut at Amazon for the princely sum of just under four quid. That was one offer I just couldn't refuse.

The plot to The Replacement Killers is nothing new or original, it's just stylish with a nice cast. Chow Yun-Fat makes for an intriguing action hero in a Hollywood production, this was his US debut despite being a huge star in Asian cinema alongside the likes of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Mira Sorvino shares a nice chemistry on-screen with Yun-Fat, despite the fact that there is no love interest plot line in this film at all, and I'd only previously seen this actress in the comedy Romy And Michelle's High School Reunion. The duo look good and bounce off each other, with Sorvino looking particularly nice in a series of open blouse and black bra pieces (they weren't going for a particular demographic here, eh?).

Although the rest of the cast is as good as this kind of genre films requires, the two main adversaries in Rooker and Prochnow deserve a mention. Rooker for imitating Metallica guitarist James Hetfield and turning him into a street wise cop with a penchant for big guns and a soft spot for Mr Magoo. Prochnow on the other hand seems destined to be a supporting actor in Hollywood, which seems a bit of a waste for a talent in the greatness that was Das Boot; it's always nice to get the chance to see him on-screen, but I just feel that his talent is wasted.



The Replacement Killers is a self-assured debut film from Antoine Fuqua, who previously directed commercials, a film that knows what it wants to be and is unashamed of that fact. It's big and glossy, and co-incidentally set a record for the number of bullets shot on-screen at the time, and is virtually non-stop action. At least the theatrical cut was. There's an extra ten minutes or so in this extended cut that really fleshes out the characters a little more and fills in some of the back-story. It slows the pace down a little, but it only extends the running time to an hour and a half so it doesn't really outstay its welcome. The action sequences are almost balletic in style, a gracefulness in Yun-Fat's movements alongside frenetic gunplay by everyone else.

I see that Chow Yun-Fat hasn't made many more films in the US so far, I suspect that Hollywood has the same problems with him as Jackie Chan and Jet Li. That's Hollywood's loss and ours. There's no doubting the pedigree. Give him some decent material and a bit of respect.

Still, I'm happy with The Replacement Killers and will happily give this disc yet another spin sometime soon.