Alternate Takes 09.06.08: Bangkok Dangerous

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 09.06.2008

Bangkok Dangerous is one in a long line of foreign films to get a US remake. This week Alternate Takes looks at five other notable foreign remakes.



Hello and welcome to Week 20 of Alternate Takes. My name is Shawn S. Lealos.

PLUGS

411 Movies Roundtable: September 2008 - Where the movie crew talks about everything you can expect to see in September. My picks? Burn After Reading and Eagle Eye.

The Watcher Diaries - Dead Man's Party - Buffy Episode 3.2 - I have joined the gang for Season 3 of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer revisits. This week, episode 2, which I thought was a little below average. Next week, things pick up with the arrival of Faith!

I have 3 more promos up for my podcast: The Starving Dog Show. PROMO 1 / PROMO 2 / PROMO 3 - Be on the watch, the premiere episode is coming - Monday, September 8.


And... here... we... go...


BANGKOK DANGEROUS



Directed by The Pang brothers
Cast: Nic Cage, Shahkrit Yamnarm, Charlie Young, Panward Hemmanee

The action! The explosions! The mayhem! The bad hair! While this may look like more of the same old shit from Nic Cage, there is something a little different about this action flick. First take a look at Cage's co-stars. Recognize any of them? The movie is directed by the Pang brothers, the pair who brought us The Eye. They didn't bring us the lackluster PG-13 schlock fest that starred Jessica Alba, they brought us the original R-rated version the remake was based on. Now, they already tried their hands at the American horror movie, The Messengers, and thanks to the American system of catering to the young (i.e. PG-13), the brothers failed to set the world on fire. I might have given up on them if not for the very interesting The Eye 3 (or Eye 10, as it was originally called). The movie had a very interesting look and they seemed to owe a lot to the visual style of Quentin Tarantino. Thanks to this movie, I am willing to give them another chance. Bangkok Dangerous is a remake of the brother's first movie. In the original 1999 film, a deaf-mute hit man who is based in Bangkok learns that good people are hurt by his actions after a big name hit. In this recent retelling, Nic Cage plays the hit man who gets the tables turned on him when he refuses to carry out a hit. I have high hopes for this movie, as the brothers have forsaken America's star system and returned to their home country with Cage to produce a Rated-R action flick. I know Nic Cage is not a name high on people's respect lists, but he really does respect the stories he tells, and I think there might be more to this movie than you see on the surface.

There has been an onslaught recently of foreign remakes, some coming only a year or two after the original. I will take a look here at some of the better adaptations.

Five Alternate Takes

12 MONKEY'S (1995)

Directed by Terry Gilliam
Cast: Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Madeleine Stowe, David Morse
Inspired by La Jetée (1962, France)

12 Monkeys is not an actual remake of the French classic La Jetee, more inspired by the short film. La Jetee is an experimental film that almost exclusively uses still photos as a montage that plays out at a varying pace. It is accompanied by a voice over telling the story of an apocalyptic society investigating time travel. They send a criminal to the past in order to provide food, medicine and energy to the present in aid of survivors of a nuclear devastation. While in the past this criminal meets a woman he recognizes from visions of his own childhood. I would say the only difference between the two storylines is the fact that, in the original, he is also sent into the future and is given a tool to save his present day society. Director Terry Gilliam (Brazil) chose to ignore that plot strand and focus entirely on the themes of madness, repressed memories and a sense of fate. Much of the film's visual aspects borrow heavily from the Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove, which is obvious when viewing certain shots side by side. Both films take a criminal and place him in a situation that society deems appropriate and then studies them as they flounder around, lost and confused. 12 Monkey's also includes fantastic performances by its leads Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. This might rank at the top of my favorite Brad Pitt performances as he plays completely against the character he had built up to that time. Similar to his role in True Romance, it is this anti-Pitt that entertains me the most. This would be Terry Gilliam's last big budget film in which he would be left alone by the studios to do his work, and therefore is the last Gilliam movie I consider a bonafide classic.

"Uh-huh. In the eighteenth century, no such thing, nada, nothing. No one ever imagined such a thing. No sane person, anyway. Ah! Ah! Along comes this doctor, uh, uh, uh, Semmelweis, Semmelweis. Semmelweis comes along. He's trying to convince people, well, other doctors mainly, that's there's these teeny tiny invisible bad things called germs that get into your body and make you sick. Ah? He's trying to get doctors to wash their hands. What is this guy? Crazy? Teeny, tiny, invisible? What do you call it? Uh-uh, germs? Huh? What? Now, cut to the 20th century. Last week, as a matter of fact, before I got dragged into this hellhole. I go in to order a burger in this fast food joint, and the guy drops it on the floor. Jim, he picks it up, he wipes it off, he hands it to me like it's all OK. "What about the germs?" I say. He says, "I don't believe in germs. Germs is just a plot they made up so they can sell you disinfectants and soaps." Now he's crazy, right? See? Ah! Ah! There's no right, there's no wrong, there's only popular opinion."


VANILLA SKY (2001)

Directed by Cameron Crowe
Cast: Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell, Jason Lee
Remake of Abre los ojos (1997, Spain)

This movie caught a lot of slack upon its release. I think it is a work of art that grows upon each subsequent viewing. Many people I talk to who hate this movie watched it once. This is one of those movies that rewards repeat viewings, something haters are unwilling to subject themselves to. What makes the movie so polarizing? Cameron Crowe had built a loyal audience that loved his sweet, quirky movies. Say Anything, Singles, Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous spoke to an entire generation of slackers who saw themselves in his work. He was like the less talented Wes Anderson in that he made movies that told great stories to his legion of fans in a pretty simplistic manner. That would make his 2001 film a shock to his core audience. It would be Crowe's most ambitious film and, in my opinion, the movie that made him want to step out of the box he had painted himself into. His fans would not follow and he has made only one film since. The original film, Abre los ojos, was directed by Spanish film director Alejandro Amenabar, best known for the American horror film The Others, which ironically starred Tom Cruise's ex-wife Nicole Kidman. The remake takes most of the plot from Abre los ojos but changes the ending slightly. I think the biggest problem with Vanilla Sky is the material is unlike anything Crowe or Cruise had ever attempted and many fans want the same old song and dance. I think it's a great, innovative picture, the best directorial work Crowe had attempted up to that time. It is not his best story but he proved to me he knows how to shoot a complex movie and do it well.

"My dreams are a cruel joke. They taunt me. Even in my dreams I'm an idiot... who knows he's about to wake up to reality. If I could only avoid sleep. But I can't. I try to tell myself what to dream. I try to dream that I am flying. Something free. It never works..."


THE RING (2002)

Directed by Gore Verbinski
Cast: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Brian Cox, Amber Tamblyn
Remake of Ringu (1998, Japan)

The worst thing about The Ring is the aftermath. The Ring might be the creepiest movie I have ever seen in a theater. The movie was successful because Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) knows how to craft a picture. This movie freaked me out and I left the theater in shock that it worked so well. The plot line is pretty simple. There is a videotape and if you watch it you receive a phone call informing you that you are going to die. Then you die. The freaky girl crawling out of the TV was so un-nerving, I couldn't shake the image out of my mind for a long time. Cut to six years later. The freaky child with stringy, wet hair and a pale white face has been done to death. It is no longer scary, it is stupid. But when this movie came out, it was different and new and fresh. There is one aspect of this movie I cannot forgive. Based on the Japanese hit Ringu, directed by Hideo Nakata, this would start a trend of Asian horror remakes such as Dark Water, The Eye, and one of the worst movies ever made, The Grudge. Take an Asian horror movie, add an American cast - preferably including someone from a hit television show (The Ring included Joan of Arcadia's Amber Tamblyn, The Grudge starred Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Sarah Michelle Gellar), mix in some freaky looking kid and you are set. The Ring is the only one good enough to mention in this list.

"When Darby there was born... we knew something wasn't right with him, but we loved him anyways. It takes work you know... some people have limits."


INSOMNIA (2002)

Directed by Christopher Nolan
Cast: Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Martin Donovan, Hilary Swank, Nicky Katt
Remake of Insomnia (1997, Norway)

Before he took over the Batman franchise and after he became a cult sensation with Memento, Christopher Nolan adapted this Norwegian murder mystery. Taking place in the North, detective encounters the "Midnight Sun" where the sun is visible, never setting, for four months out of the year. The original film, directed by Erik Skolbdjaerg (Prozac Nation), is almost an anti-Noir looking film as the constant sunlight and white fog replaces the harsh shadows and darkness normally present in Noir. The rest of the film is classic Noir with a protagonist (portrayed by Stellan Skarsgard) all kinds of shades of gray, and might be as bad as the killer he is chasing. The remake proved to be another visual triumph for the wunderkind who gave us the greatest comic book movie of all time this summer. While The Prestige and Memento get more critical acceptance, Insomnia is just as brilliant and proves Nolan can craft a genre mystery with as much care and precision as he would his other unusually quirky pictures. The way he shoots the Midnight Sun in contrast to the expectations of the detective (portrayed here by Al Pacino) is amazing. The viewer is thrown off balance due to the camera techniques employed on this picture and we are always step-in-step with the detective as he tries to adjust to this new environment. I would also like to point out Robin Williams' role in this film, one of the finest pieces of dramatic acting you will see from the man. I'm not comparing his work here to Heath Ledger's work as The Joker, but after seeing Williams' performance as the killer in this film it is not a surprise that Nolan could squeeze a masterpiece performance like Ledger's in The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan is one of the best director's working today, and I don't see a bad movie in his entire filmography.

"You and I share a secret. We know how easy it is to kill someone. That ultimate taboo. It doesn't exist outside our own minds."


THE DEPARTED (2006)

Directed by Martin Scorsese
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Leo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson, Alec Baldwin
Remake of Infernal Affairs (2002, Hong Kong)

It had to happen sooner or later. Out of all the foreign (and particularly Asian) remakes, The Departed is the one movie that deserves the greatest success. It captured best picture at The Oscars. It won Martin Scorsese his first director's statue. It is about time he received that award, too. Always the bridesmaid. In 1981, Scorsese (Raging Bull) lost to Robert Redford (Ordinary People). Which movie is considered the masterpiece today? Scorsese lost in 1989 with The Last Temptation of Christ. I can see that because the pastor at my church, as well as other ministers across the country was demanding we boycott this film because "it was blasphemous." It's proof that some things never change. In 1991, he lost the statue to Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves). That was a tough choice, but in any other year Goodfellas could have won hands down. Recently there has been a push to get him the statue, but neither Gangs of New York nor The Aviator were up to the level of his prior masterpieces. Then came The Departed. This movie was the best Scorsese picture in years. I would say the storyline, and the direction, were not too original since it is faithfully based on the original source material. The elevator sequence at the end was exactly the same as the original, shot-for-shot. I don't care because the man got his just rewards. Both the original and the remake are great films, but the remake remains on a level above the original because of the acting. Jack Nicholson may not be the same actor he once was, but he is sublime in this movie. Matt Damon is Matt Damon, and that is all that needs to be said there. The chemistry between Damon and DiCaprio make the entire story feel real, unlike the original where I couldn't see a great difference between the two leads. What makes this movie even better are the supporting characters. Mark Wahlberg (who deserved the Oscar for best supporting actor) and Alec Baldwin are phenomenal. I guess you probably can't tell that I absolutely love this movie.

"I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me. Years ago we had the church. That was only a way of saying - we had each other. The Knights of Columbus were real head-breakers; true guineas. They took over their piece of the city. Twenty years after an Irishman couldn't get a fucking job, we had the presidency. May he rest in peace. That's what the niggers don't realize. If I got one thing against the black chappies, it's this - no one gives it to you. You have to take it."



Up next week