Despite following in a long established tradition, the new thriller "Bangkok Dangerous" occupies a special place among movie remakes. It began life in 1999 with the same title in Thailand, in the language of that country, the work of twin writer-directors, the Pang brothers, Asian versions of the Coens or the Wachowskis. In an odd gesture of self imitation, or perhaps self plagiarism, the Pangs now offer a new version of the film in English, which closely follows the original and stars not a little-known Asian actor, but the possibly too well known Nicolas Cage.

Cage, who narrates the film in that familiar monotone and in the impossible manner of William Holden in "Sunset Boulevard" (or for the literary types, the protagonist of Edgar Allan Poe's "Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym") introduces himself as a professional assassin, called simply Joe. He opens the movie carrying out a job in Prague, which he cleans up neatly by murdering his assistant, who had expected quite another sort of payment. He explains that act as his way of tying up loose ends, and then enumerates the rules of conduct that enable him to stay alive and successful in his career; simply compiling that list, of course, signals to the audience the eventual outcome of the rest of the picture.

Together with the list, his announcement that he plans one last big job before retiring, another traditional guarantee of disaster, establishes some rudimentary emotional engagement with a man who is, after all, a cold blooded killer, but turns into that familiar cinematic figure, the Assassin With Qualms. Aside from witnessing the danger the character faces, the audience must sympathize with him, must even care about him. Without that sympathy, the character becomes something like an unfeeling monster, hardly appropriate for the purposes of sustaining a full-length film narrative.

Cage's plan for his final big score before hanging up his spikes takes him to Bangkok, where he must eliminate a Thai crime boss's four major competitors. Although coping with a strange city and a foreign language, he manages to knock off a couple of his targets without too much difficulty. Along the way, however, he picks up the sort of baggage that his own rules forbid, in the form of a young petty thief named Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm), who acts as guide and errand boy, delivering vital information and payments for the assignments.

Kong persuades Cage to teach him his trade, which enables the filmmakers to interrupt their dark narrative with a montage of educational moments, as Cage instructs his young protégé in physical fitness, hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship, and a sort of Zen concentration. The hit man also falls in love with a deaf-mute woman with whom he somehow can communicate. Her condition, which otherwise seems merely an unusual characterizing detail, allows for one nice moment, when she cannot hear him shooting a couple of attackers, but only realizes it when she feels blood splashing on her back.

As it must, "Bangkok Dangerous" provides a number of exciting scenes and the obligatory chases through crowded streets and even down a complex of canals. For Western audiences it also shows a great many shots of the exotic location, a kind of travelogue with blood and bullets. Possibly an Asian convention in the manner of John Woo's action flicks, the movie also exhibits a profligate deployment of firepower, with Cage and his various adversaries virtually hosing each other with automatic weapons, and hundreds of rounds bouncing all over the sets and sometimes finding their marks.

"Bangkok Dangerous" depends, of course, on the presence and performance of Nicolas Cage and, not at all surprisingly, he just isn't up to the job. Even leaving aside the weak, choked voice and the flat delivery, he looks, in a word, terrible - his hair, if it is his hair, sticks out behind his head like some weird fright wig, and his normally inexpressive countenance resembles a badly carved mask. Finally, he seems terribly unhappy and depressed throughout the whole movie, and, to be honest, he should be. 

Bangkok Dangerous

(R), directed by Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang

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