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Yet Another Action Movie

There was real potential with this film. Chow Yun Fat to star in an exciting film with some decent co-stars (Mira Sorvino and Jurgen Prochnow). So who was responsible for turning it into a real damp squib and wasting the budget? Give some film-makers millions of dollars to spend on a film and I get the impression they can't deal with it. Or is it Hollywoods' fault? Seeing as how some films get re-cut without the directors input afterwards.

Chow Yun Fats character is really dull. English is not his first language and he looks lost, the director needed to work harder to get more emotion from him. Or perhaps that is how they decided to play his character, strong, silent and unimaginatively like in alot of other action films. Jurgen Prochnow is also wasted.

The 2 stars are for Mira Sorvino and the some of the music. She does a great job and almost saves the film. Her first scene is great and so is another later on. The film looks good but most of them do these days. It would be good to see more thought from the scriptwriters/directors/studios (whoever is to blame) in the future.

Masterpiece of choreographed violence.

The "Replacement Killers" is a masterpiece of choreographed violence. The movie was superbly acted and the storyline flowed well through the use of narrative and flashback. Chow Yun Fat is an excellent actor who improves with each performance. Yes, John Woo's influence is clearly present in the action scenes and his slow motion choreography has been honored in this film.

The best Chow Yun Fat movie yet!

Chow Yun Fat gives non stop action! This was the first time that I saw him, but he is better than most action/adventure actors.

Boy, is this silly!

When the replacement killers step into the airport, I burst out laughing. You expect to see a limo driver with a sign that says, "Real ugly killers, please?"This is not to say it wasn't fun. Chow Yun-Fat and Mira Sorvino are both excellent and, given the nature of the movie, believable. But people standing around in movie theatres and game arcades, etc., ratcheting off round after round ... give me a break. Chow refers to the two killers as assassins, but assassins should be a little stealthy. These guys just walk in and start shooting. Chow and Sorvino run down the street carrying their guns up and out in plain sight and walk down the aisles of the movie theatre that way and NOBODY NOTICES! Right.Maybe this is the nature of this genre - with which I am not especially familiar. Oh well.

"I want forged documents to China."

I have to admit that Chow Yun-Fat's American debut was a step down from his usual self. The action sequences were nice, especially the finale, and Mira Sorvino was great as a hard-nosed bitch, but there was something missing in this one. If you want to see Chow Yun-Fat back in top form, go see The Corruptor.

Chow Yun-Fat kickin butt.

Most people think this movie is mindless and pointless, and one of Chow's worst. I think people look to deeply into the film. This film is not about havin an indepth story or plot line. It's not a movie that's supposed to make you ponder on life. It's just a flashy movie showin Chow kickin butt to kickin music, period. Sure, it might not be good compared to "The Killer" or "Hard Boiled", but it is still a "fun" movie to watch. And that's what watchin a movie like this is for, fun, not thought. To those people who criticized it for all that was wrong I say: "Sit down, shut up, and watch the movie. Don't compare or think about what your watchin, just watch it."

long on gunfire, short on story

This movie was plain sorry. Thin plot, pitiful acting, senseless action scenes. This was just another program aimed at the mindless action crowd. Two or three million rounds were fired between 2 groups at odds with each other. Very few of them hit their targets... who teaches these hit men to shoot? This was nothing but "Last Man Standing" done in Chinatown. Instead of hiring a high priced actor like Bruce Willis to make the film, the producers opted for some Chinese guy named Lo Fat Wu or whatever. His performance was a joke; I haven't seen this much ham since last Thanksgiving. 2 thumbs down.

Thrilling Action Sequences Spice Up Limited Storyline

_The Replacement Killers_ begins in fine style: loud dance music in a club scene, Chow Yun-Fat walking in slow motion through the bodies on the dance floor, fists clenching and unclenching. You can just tell that some people are about to die...badly. Suddenly, Yun-Fat approaches a table full of cocaine junkies and lays down a single bullet, marked with the sign of death from Yun-Fat's employer. Before anyone knows what's hit them, bodies are flying everywhere. It is the perfect opening to what eventually turns out to be only a decent action film.


Chow Yun-Fat's first appearance in Hollywood features him doing what he does best: his acrobatic fighting style, often compared to a "ballet," is in full force in this film and is thrilling to watch. Unfortunately, while offering up some wonderful slow-motion-set-to-hip-hop-music action sequences, the film does not deliver much else. I found the story lacking and the character development to be quite poor. Of course, you will say, it is an action film. Why expect so much? I expect so much because we have seen better, especially from Chow Yun-Fat. While I don't expect the film to be completely believable, since all action films require us to suspend our firm hold on reality, I do expect an action film to create a sense of character and emotion within the context of the film's absurdities.

All that being said, I did enjoy the visual flash of the film and the length couldn't have been better. At 87 minutes, _The Replacement Killers_ does not allow itself to steep too heavily in the limitations of its script. Instead, it's pure eye-candy from start to finish. If you like movies in the style of John Woo, even without their subtleties and heart, then this film is for you.

One of our Favorites

This is my wife's favorite movie (she should be commenting). The chemistry of Fat and Sorvino coupled with Woo's direction just make this a "killer" movie (in a positive way).This is not my favorite movie, although it was the first time I really noticed Mia Sorvino. (Though I had seen her w/Kilmer, etc...) She played with a lot of confidence in this movie and really delivered some good one liners ("When I have the gun, we're going to have this conversation again"). Some favorite character actors to boot just make this a real good DVD buy.We keep it in our Master collection for easy access.

Shallow Action Flick....

.... Though I guess that really shouldn`t be taken as a terrible criticism . After all John Woo appears in the credits as executive producer so you know what to expect , you know that the man walking through the disco floor in the opening sequence is going to get into a shoot out and you know what type of shoot out he`s going to get involved with . That`s right one of those shoot outs where he flings his coat off , turns 360 degrees fires his gun in a ridiculously held manner , throws it away ( Even though there`s no way he`s used up all the rounds ) pulls out another gun and kills even more bad guys As I said it`s not really a criticism but like a Jerry Bruckheimer production I do get bored with these type of balletic choreography action scenes rather quickly . Impressive first few times you see them , boring by the time you get to the millionith time , and as you can imagine everything is style over substance with people running around in slo-mo dodging bullets that seem to explode with everything they come into contact withI will give the producers some credit for making a serious revenge flick that tries to paint the characters as something more than just one dimensional cyphers , but like I said I`ve seen too many of these type of action sequences to still be impressed by them

Good enough for Hollywood.

The Replacement Killers was good enough, but that's it. I came to expect more from John Woo, who executive produced it (whatever that means). Chow-Yun Fat was excellent, of course. I wanted to hear him speak English, and he did a remarkable job. He's more fun to watch when you don't have to read the screen every time someone talks. Action flick. Bang bang. Big guns. High body count. It just makes me want to see his new film with Mark Wahlberg, whom I have a newfound respect for - Boogie Nights was quite good.

one hell uva action flick....amazing action sequences

the replacement killers is chow yun fats first american film and he sure chose one hell of a flick to start with. He stars as john lee and is a hired assasin, asked to do 3 tasks for a mob lord, when the third task is killing a 10 year boy john refuses and the action ensues. Mira sorvino stars as a forger who he goes to to get a passport and of course, gets her involved. The story was excellent and the performances by chow and mira are excellent, the action sequences are almost like a ballet, one might say gracefully done. great action and great performances..in other words...GREAT MOVIE.

Replacement Killers

for those who are shoot 'em up fans this is an excellent film. Chow Yun Fat fans will love him in this.so too,mira sorvino followers.All around great film

The best Hong Kong action movie ever made

My rating- ***1/2[3 1/2 Stars]This is the best Hong Kong action movie I have ever seen. This is the first action movie that has had a load of action and managed to have great acting and storyline to it. This movie is the first movie that introduced me to Chow Yun Fat who is now one of my top favorite action stars and I'm looking forward to seeing him in "The Corruptor". Two other stars starring in this movie are Mira Sorvino ("Mimic") and Dany Trejo ("Con Air", "From Dusk till Dawn" and from "Dusk till Dawn: The Henchman's Daughter:)

Can't get enough!

Loved this movie. I have watched it serveral times and with each viewing I am impressed by the details in every shot. This seemingly simple film is like a very finely crafted painting with details that are only obvious after repeated looks. My only regret is that I could not find the widescreen version of this movie for VHS.

A great movie, that is not long enough

The Replacement Killers is the American debut for the international action star Chow Yun-Fat. I was a bit sceptical about Chow making ultra-violent action in America, but the movie turned out to be excellent.Chow Yun-Fat plays John Lee, a deadly assassin, who is pursuaded by a ruthless gangster boss, to do some killings for him. At the beginning of the movie, there is some splendid action-scenes at the disco, where John kills 5 criminals. A cop kills the son of the gangster boss, then the gangster boss calls in John to assassinate the son of the cop. John is as always an assassins with a heart of gold, so he can`t pull the trigger. The gangster boss then sends a bunch of killers after John, who tries to escape to Chine, so he can save his family from the gangster boss. He needs a passport, and Mira Sorvino is the one he visits to get it. During his visit, the killers appears at the front door, and then the fun begins again. TRK is the first movie directed by Antoine Fuqua, and what a debut it is too! The only downside of this movie is that it is too short, it needs at least another 20 minutes of running-time. John Woo is an executive producer of this film, but this is better than some of Woo`s own American movies. It`s better than Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Blackjack and even the mighty Face/Off at times. I give this movie 9 out of 10.

Wow!

This was the first time I'd seen anything from either Chow Yun Fat or John Woo and on both counts I was an immediate convert. Tense, thrilling this movie doesn't let you go for one millisecond. Great rapport between Chow Yun Fat and Mira Sorvino (And boy is she gorgeous) and shmaltz-free.There was so much gun play in this movie that i would have felt ashamed if I hadn't been enjoying myself so much.The production was great and action scenes seamless and the plot sturdy enough to hold everything together.A must for action fans.

Killer movie, but a "please kill me" script.

Don't you just love movies that have intense action, an amazing use of editing, and a fantastic cinematographic style? I sure do, and I loved this movie for that reason. As far as technical aspects go, "The Replacement Killers" was great, as far as the rest of the movie goes, umm...well....let's just say, it should have been made as a silent. The screenplay was horrible, and it was hard for even a pro like Mira Sorvino to deliver it in a manner that seemed halfway desent. It was fun, and I liked it; and you will too, as long as you ignore the obvious mistakes and loopholes in the script.

Good not great

Being a fan of Chow Yun Fat I saw every showing of this movie for a day and a half when it first came out (i worked at a movie theater at the time), so it gave me time to reflect on it being able to see it a few times (8 actually). This movie is really strange. I dunno but to me it seems almost surreal. It just never really feels like I am watching a movie, more like one of the director's music videos. Don't get me wrong I liked this film, but for Chow's first American release I was hoping for something more. An average action flick with some grade A actors.

A true action classic that needs to be viewed

I rented this film because I like Chow Yun Fat and other Asian action stars. In the film, Chow Yun Fat plays an assassin. After his mob leader's son is killed by a police officer in a shootout, the leader sends Fat on a mission to kill the cop's 7 year-old son in retaliation, eye-for-an-eye. But as the boy appears in the hands of his father seen by Fat through the crosshairs of a sniper rifle, Fat decides he cannot kill the boy. This angers his boss, who sends in "replacement" assassins to kill Fat as well as his family over in China. The whole film Fat is dodging bullets with Mira Sorvino, who specializes in making false passports and ID papers and Fat is trying to get papers so that he can travel to China to save his family. This movie is full of shootouts and excellent action scenes, which are probably the best that I have ever seen in a film. There are many stunts and although this movie takes place in the US, it has an Asian-like feel to it, which makes it more suspenseful and a lot of the movie is in "dark" locations, which make the gunbattles more exciting. SEE THIS FILM AND YOU WILL THANK ME. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments.