Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

Unsurprisingly, Bangkok Dangerous is utter rubbish. After seeing a trailer for Cage’s recently released The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent (2022) the film where Cage plays himself, I wondered how far did his films plummet before reaching this self referential, post modernistic approach? So I picked one at random, from a period when it seemed that the man had hit rock bottom. With expectations particularly low, Bangkok Dangerous threatened a severe job to make it through the film, but I have to say I managed the full ninety minutes fairly easily. It’s bargain bin B-movie fodder fronted by a man who once won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas (1995), a film I remember being pretty impressive. Cage is a hit man who- that’s right- needs to embark on one more final job before he can retire, in Bangkok no less. Cage is picking up the cheque, no more, no less. He’s not great, but he’s certainly not terrible, and the film is rubbish, but falls some way short of being absolutely terrible. There’s also a chase sequence that reminded me of The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), and how under appreciated that Moore outing as Bond is. It is what it is, and it should be shelved in the bargain bins of video stores, to be rented out for £1 on a Saturday night, if you’ve already had several beers, (therefore not over analysing the bizarre poster) with a takeaway to boot. Or it would be if we hadn’t had the glorious feeling of visiting the local video store cruelly and economically taken away from us anyway. 3.8/10