The Replacement Killers : Blu-ray Disc Review

The Movie Itself centers around hitman, John Lee (Chow Yun-Fat) who is contractually obligated to a ruthless Chinese kingpin, Terence Wei (Kenneth Tsang), for a maximum of three “hits” of Wei’s choosing. Upon the death of Mr. Wei’s son, at the hands of a vengeful cop (Michael Rooker), he tasks John with the disposal of the cop’s very own son.

Fortunately for the son and his family, John’s temperament is equal parts hitman and monk — favoring the latter when it comes to whacking innocent children (go figure, right?). Understandably, John’s betrayal is not taken lightly by his-now-former employer, and his family in China soon becomes Wei’s next target. To make matters worse, Wei’s influence throughout the city is far-reaching, which makes John’s impromptu flight to China all the more difficult. Enlisting the help of a tough-as-nails — and gorgeous — document forger, Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino), he grows ever closer to his goal of reaching his family in China before a terrible fate befalls them. However, when John’s “replacements” arrive on the scene, he must ultimately make a choice to save the boy from the new hired guns, or protect the lives of his loved ones instead.

The film is directed by Antoine Fuqua (”Training Day“, “Shooter“) and serves both as his directorial debut and actor, Chow Yun-Fat’s debut in Hollywood. Yun-Fat is a veritable Hong Kong film god for his stylistic-shooter films, many of his best under the direction of legendary action director John Woo. Needless to say, expectations were staggeringly high for Chow Yun-Fat’s first Hollywood movie, and in many ways Yun-Fat delivers — doing what he does best — but it’s the script that ultimately sells the film short. Granted, this was Yun-Fat’s first English speaking role, and as they go on to mention in the brief “behind-the-scenes” featurette, much of the original script had to be re-written because he wasn’t capable of delivering his lines fluently in English. Therefore, his character was re-tooled into more of the “strong silent type” which ultimately affects the film’s ability to resonate beyond the typical shoot-em-up actioner.

I get the sense that this “extended edition” was created with the explicit intent of improving our connections with both John and Meg. Sadly, though, it truly amounts to nothing more than a couple of mediocre deleted/extended scenes that do little in helping to flesh out the otherwise hollow characters. Sorvino and Yun-Fat do the absolute best they can with the material given to them, but at the end of the day, the film is precisely what you should expect from it — a whole lot of bullets and balletic gun play that is performed by Hong Kong’s greatest film asset, Chow Yun-Fat. The Killer or Hard Boiled it is not, but The Replacement Killers still musters enough gusto to make a name for itself, and earn a place in history as one of the better Hollywood actioners, even if it doesn’t possesses the heart and soul it so desperately seeks and preaches.