The Replacement Killers

The Replacement Killers is a 1998 American action film directed by Antoine Fuqua in his feature film directorial debut, and starring Chow Yun-fat (his international film debut), Mira Sorvino, Michael Rooker and Kenneth Tsang. The film was released in the United States on February 6, 1998. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Ken Sanzel. Veteran action director John Woo co-produced and choreographed the action sequences. The film is set in modern-day Los Angeles and follows an emotionally disillusioned assassin who is forced to settle a violent vendetta for a ruthless crime boss. The film marks the American acting debut for Chow, as his previous film credits included Hong Kong action cinema only.
The film was a co-production between the motion picture studios of Columbia Pictures, Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, and WCG Entertainment Productions. The Replacement Killers explores assassination, violence and the influence of triads in modern society.Antoine Fuqua (Director). (1998). The Replacement Killers [Motion picture]. United States: Columbia Pictures. The film score was orchestrated by Harry Gregson-Williams; the soundtrack was released by the Varèse Sarabande music label on March 10, 1998.
The Replacement Killers premiered in theaters nationwide in the United States on February 6, 1998, grossing $19.2 million in US ticket receipts and $39.5 million worldwide from a $30 million budget. The film was screened at 1,936 theaters during its widest release in cinemas. It has a 38% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a consensus of "mixed reviews" on Metacritic. The widescreen DVD edition of the film featured scene selections, a featurette, and interviews among other highlights, and was released in the United States on July 1, 1998.
==Plot==
During an orchestrated drug bust at a marine loading dock, LAPD detective Stan Zedkov kills Triad lieutenant Peter Wei.
Looking to exact revenge for his son's death, Peter's father, Terence, sends for professional assassin John Lee. Paying off an old debt, Lee has already killed two targets for Wei, who now tells him that this third and final job will settle the obligation. However, Lee's conscience prevents him from completing his final assignment: to assassinate Zedkov's seven-year-old son Stevie before the detective's eyes.
Realizing that his actions will result in retaliation against his mother and sister, Lee prepares to return to China, enlisting the help of old friend Alan Chan, a monk in a local Buddhist temple, to make arrangements to have his family moved to a secure location. Infuriated by Lee's disobedience, Wei orders his head lieutenant, Michael Kogan, to lead the hunt for Lee, and has his people in China begin the search for Lee's family.
No longer able to use the Triad network to get out of the country, Lee searches for alternative means outside Wei's sphere of influence, and looks to skilled forger Meg Coburn for a new passport. Before she can finish the job, Wei's men storm Meg's office, destroying the computerized tools of her trade in the ensuing shootout. Lee escapes; Coburn is picked up by the police, unsuccessfully interrogated by Zedkov, and released as bait so the detective can see who tries to kill her. Meanwhile, Wei hires two skilled out-of-town contract killers named Ryker and Collins to take over the hunt for Lee and the Zedkov contract.
Lee finds Coburn when she returns to her destroyed office. Having been made aware that the Triads are involved, Coburn wants out, but Lee forces her to finish her original task of creating a forged passport. Traveling with Coburn, and with the two "replacement killers" in pursuit, Lee gets pictures from a photo booth and phones Alan, who offers the use of his passport. When Lee arrives at the temple, he discovers that Alan has been tortured to the point of death. Alan tells Lee that his family was moved to Canton—but he told his torturers they were in Shanghai. Lee has little more than 24 hours before his family is found. The monk gives Lee his passport before dying in his arms.
Holed up in a hotel, Coburn finishes altering Alan's passport for Lee. The two exchange stories, and Coburn becomes sympathetic to Lee. Feeling compelled to stop the killing of Zedkov's son before leaving the country, Lee forces one of Wei's men to reveal the plan, which is to kill Stevie while he and his father are at a movie festival inside a cinema. Lee and Coburn, who insists on helping, arrive barely in time to prevent Ryker and Collins from killing the boy, and Ryker is killed by Lee in the subsequent gunfight.
Concerned that Lee and Coburn will make their way back to his base of operations, Wei makes plans to flee the country and hunt down Lee's mother and sister himself. However, when two guards open the main gate for Wei and his entourage to leave in a limo, Lee is just outside. He launches a two-handed handgun assault while Coburn surfaces moments later, driving a truck through the melee, incapacitating Michael, and later killing him. When Collins fires from a high perch on Lee and Coburn, Lee soon outflanks Collins, killing him from behind. Finally, Lee corners Wei on a fire escape platform. Though both men have emptied their guns, Lee is first to reload. Wei promises Lee that the boy and Lee's family will still die, but Lee replies, "Not in your lifetime," and kills him. Though Zedkov arrives before Lee and Coburn can get away, he lets them go, taking only their guns.
Coburn reluctantly bids goodbye to Lee at the airport, presenting him with one last gift, passports for his mother and sister.
==Cast==
* Chow Yun-fat as John Lee
* Mira Sorvino as Meg Coburn
* Michael Rooker as Det. Stan "Zeedo" Zedkov
* Kenneth Tsang as Terence Wei
* Jürgen Prochnow as Michael Kogan
* Til Schweiger as Ryker
* Danny Trejo as Collins
* Clifton Collins, Jr. as Loco
* Carlos Gomez as Det. Hunt
* Frank Medrano as Eddie Rawlins
* Carlos Leon as Romero
* Leo Lee as Lam
* Patrick Kilpatrick as Pryce
* Randall Duk Kim as Alan Chan
* Andrew J. Marton as Stevie Zedkov
* Sydney Coberly as Sara Zedkov
* Yau-Gene Chan as Peter Wei
* Nicki Micheaux as Nicole, Police Technician
* Max Daniels as Old Drug Smuggler
* Albert Wong as Old Chinese Man
==Production==
===Filming===
Production for the film began on February 10, 1997 in downtown Los Angeles. The first shoot was set in the historic Mayan Theater, refurbished as a trendy nightclub and cast with hundreds of extras for the film's opening scene.Stewart, Bhob (1998). Synopsis . AllRovi. Retrieved 2012-07-05. The eight-story, nearly condemned Giant Penny building in the middle of LA served as the location for a police station interior, a hotel room, and Meg Coburn's office. A chaotic gunfight was filmed amid the spray, brushes, and hoses of Joe's Car Wash, also in LA. A Chinatown-like streetscape of damp, narrow alleys and blinking red neon lights was created for the night-time finale, where Yun-Fat shot off 546 rounds of two-fisted shooting; the repetitive action left his hands blistered and shaking. More gunplay took place in
a video arcade replicated at the original Lawry's California CenterYesteryear Remembered, Lawry's California Center, Yesteryearremembered.com (now the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens),LA Mountains.com, Los Angeles River Center & Gardens, Lamountains.com just north of downtown LA. Lee's tranquil Buddhist temple was fashioned under this same roof.
Director Fuqua stressed to his team that the aim was to design a "Taxi Driver for the 1990s". In addition to physical training, Mira Sorvino, who had never handled a gun prior to this film, took weapons training to prepare for her role. Sorvino, who majored in Asian studies at Harvard, speaks Mandarin, and lived for eight months (1988–89) in Beijing, where she studied Chinese, taught English, and saw Chinese films, including Hong Kong action films, felt The Replacement Killers brought her a step closer to her goal of making a film in Mandarin and working with a Chinese director. Prior to the start of filming, Sorvino had blown out her voice from screaming in reshoots of Mimic; Fuqua liked the effect and asked her to keep it, which required Sorvino to yell prior to each day's shoots to burn out her voice.
===Soundtrack===
The original motion picture score was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. Alan Meyerson mixed the sound elements for the chorus, while Richard Whitfield edited the film's music. The soundtrack for the film was released on March 10, 1998 by the Varèse Sarabande music label.The Replacement Killers . BarnesandNoble.com. Retrieved 2012-07-05. In an interview with Hideo Kojima, he stated it was the film's soundtrack that lead him to hire Harry to work on the soundtrack of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
==Additional music==
In addition to the film score by Harry Gregson-Williams, several modern songs by cutting-edge artists were included on the soundtrack (although never officially released as a cd) including:
*"Keep Hope Alive" by The Crystal Method 
*"Jaan " by Talvin Singh featuring Amar
*"Makes Me Wanna Die (The Weekend Mix)" by Tricky
*"Rocco" by Death In Vegas (album: Dead Elvis)
*"Boom Boom Caw" by Brad
*"33" by Hed PE
*"Escape From The City Of Angels" by Ithaka (featuring Marta Dias) / Album: Flowers And The Color Of Paint)
==Release==
The Replacement Killers premiered in cinemas on February 6, 1998 in wide release throughout the US, and had a five-week theatrical run.
===Home media===
Following its cinematic release in theaters, The Replacement Killers was released on DVD and VHS by Columbia TriStar Home Video in the United States on July 1, 1998. Special features for the DVD include scene selections and the featurette specials; Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood along wth an edited HBO special: "Where the Action is". A VHS format edition was released on March 30, 1999.
On March 5, 2002, a Special Edition DVD was released. Features include: digitally mastered audio and anamorphic video; widescreen presentation; audio in English 5.1 (Dolby Digital), Spanish, French, Portuguese; subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Thai; director's commentary; HBO making-of, Where the Action Is; deleted scenes; alternate ending; exclusive featurette, Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood; theatrical trailers; filmographies; animated menus; and scene selections with motion images.
A UMD version of the film for the Sony PlayStation Portable was released on August 9, 2005. The disc features DVD quality picture; languages in Chinese, English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai, with viewing options for color and black and white.
An extended-cut DVD adding approximately 10 minutes to the film was released on April 25, 2006. Special features include: Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood; digitally remastered picture and sound; and an edited HBO special, Where the Action Is.
The widescreen hi-definition Blu-ray version of the film was released on September 11, 2007. Special features include: The Making of the Replacement Killers: Where the Action Is and the exclusive featurette, Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood. A supplemental viewing option for the film in the media format of Video on demand is available as well.
==Reception==
===Box office===
During its February 6, 1998 US opening weekend, the film ranked second place, grossing $8,046,553 at 1,936 locations. The film Titanic came in first place during that weekend grossing $23,027,838. Its revenue dropped by 49% in its second week of release, earning $4,068,335. For that particular weekend, the film fell to sixth place still screening in 1,936 theaters. Titanic remained in first place grossing $28,167,947 in box office revenue. During its final week in release, The Replacement Killers opened in a distant 21st place with $131,727 in revenue. The film went on to top out domestically at $19,204,929 in total ticket sales through a 5-week theatrical run. For 1998 as a whole, the film would cumulatively rank at a box office performance position of 90. Worldwide, the film grossed $39.5 million in all territories.
===Critical response===
Rotten Tomatoes reports that 37% of 38 sampled critics gave the film a positive review; the average score is 5.3 out of 10. The consensus summarizes: "Chow Yun-fat makes his dubious English-language debut in The Replacement Killers, a stylish but muddled knockoff of the Hong Kong shoot-em-ups that earned the star his international renown."The Replacement Killers (1998) . Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 2012-07-05. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average out of 100 to critics' reviews, the film received a score of 42 based on 22 reviews, which it classifies as "mixed or average reviews".The Replacement Killers . Metacritic. CNET Networks. Retrieved 2012-07-05. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.
"What I liked about the film was its simplicity of form and its richness of visuals. There's a certain impersonality about the story; Chow and Sorvino don't have long chats between the gunfire. They're in a ballet of Hong Kong action imagery: bodies rolling out of gunshot range, faces frozen in fear, guys toppling off fire escapes, grim lips, the fetishism of firearms, cars shot to pieces, cops that make Dragnet sound talky."
—Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times
Among some of the positive critiques, Roger Ebert writing in the Chicago Sun-Times called it "as abstract as a jazz instrumental, and as cool and self-assured."Ebert, Roger (6 February 1998). "The Replacement Killers" . Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2012-07-05. Discussing the film's style, he remarked that it was a "high-gloss version of a Hong Kong action picture, made in America but observing the exuberance of a genre where surfaces are everything." In Variety, Leonard Klady viewed the film as being a "big, loud music video that's not particularly interested in content. It's a rudderless style piece; as the old saw cautions, accept no substitutes." Regarding the film's set design and production qualities, he noted that, "while an apt homage, the set pieces here are technical but not visceral, feeling manufactured rather than organically integrated into the plot."Klady, Leonard (1 February 1998). "The Replacement Killers" . Variety. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
Russell Smith of The Austin Chronicle said the film was "so numbingly ritualistic that even the well-choreographed gun battles, probably the most Woo-like aspects of the film, lose much of their potential impact."Smith, Russell (6 February 1998). "The Replacement Killers" . The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2012-07-05. Writing for The New York Times, Stephen Holden noted that although the film's "seamless fusion of Hong Kong action-adventure style and cool, Los Angeles street chic has a certain seductive charm, it is the only charm of a movie that is otherwise devoid of content."Holden, Stephen (6 February 1998). "Film review; Ethical Killer Teams Up With a Gun-Toting Forger" . The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-07-05. Edward Guthmann in the San Francisco Chronicle said that "As pointless blast-athons go, The Replacement Killers isn't bad. It's beautifully shot by first-time feature director Antoine Fuqua, whose eye for sensual surfaces, deft camera moves and elegant framing was refined with commercials and music videos."Guthmann, Edward (6 February 1998). "It's All in the Action / Chow Yun-Fat makes U.S. debut in stylish but empty 'Replacement Killers'" . San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
Desson Thomson of The Washington Post stated that "Without Chow Yun-Fat, who makes his American screen debut here, there'd be nothing to say about The Replacement Killers. Antoine Fuqua's action movie is entirely free of surprise. It breaks no rules." He did however muse that "Chow's pretty face and cool presence are inescapable. You don't enjoy this movie, so much as you conduct a road test for the Hong Kong actor. Yes, he can survive in an English language picture!"Thomson, Desson (6 February 1998). "Interchangeable 'Replacement'" . The Washington Post. Retrieved 2012-07-05. In The San Francisco Examiner, Walter Addiego perceived that the film "remains a counterfeit of a Woo movie, even though Woo himself co-produced it. He turned the directing chores over to first-timer Antoine Fuqua, whose previous work was limited to music videos and commercials, and it shows." He added, "The script, by Ken Sanzel, is the work of someone who's seen Woo's movies and wasn't particularly moved by the experience."Addiego, Walter (6 February 1998). "'Coolest' star in assembly-line action" . The San Francisco Examiner Retrieved 2012-07-05.
===Crew's response===
In retrospect, Antoine Fuqua said: "'The Replacement Killers' was a good and bad experience. It was great because Chow Yun-Fat is the coolest guy in the world. He was just beautiful. Mira Sorvino was cool. It was fun working with Mira. But the difficult thing was learning the studio system, learning all the things that go along with that system. There are a lot of people that have a lot of say, especially when you're that young in the studio world. You learn that it is a business. I think for me, what I learned was I still love making movies, and I know what I don't want to do. The thing that I learned the most out of that movie was what I don't want to do."
Ken Sanzel, who wrote the movie, said: "The script bears very little resemblance to anything I would have written; only the bare bones of the plot really survived. I think that Chow Yun-Fat was incredible, but for me the movie was a series of otherwise bad decisions. I’m glad that people enjoy it, but it was really Antoine Fuqua’s sensibility top to bottom, which is not at all mine (aside from the fact that we both love the work of Michael Mann, though apparently for very different reasons).
Mira Sorvino said: "I loved working with Antoine, and it was fun to do an action movie. It was kind of like being a kid and playing cowboys and Indians, or cops and robbers. And I enjoyed the role of Meg. I thought she was fun to do."
==See also==
* Triad
==References==
==External links==
* 
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Category:1998 films
Category:1998 action thriller films
Category:American action thriller films
Category:American chase films
Category:Columbia Pictures films
Category:1990s English-language films
Category:Gun fu films
Category:Triad films
Category:Films about contract killing
Category:Films directed by Antoine Fuqua
Category:Films set in Los Angeles
Category:Films scored by Harry Gregson-Williams
Category:1998 directorial debut films
Category:Films produced by Brad Grey
Category:1990s American films
Category:1990s Hong Kong films