REPLACEMENT KILLERS - DVD review

Sony was not the first media company to release specific movies on DVD over and over again. However, it is in the habit of releasing new editions that make little sense other than to ding completists in the wallet and to reach consumers who never bought certain titles in the first place. I've always wondered why Sony didn't simply re-promote existing editions for the latter purpose. After all, isn't it cheaper to keep selling what you already have rather than to create completely new products--especially since re-editing a movie and adding/dropping extras requires a new DVD master? The lousy thing about Sony's new Extended Cuts of "Tears of the Sun", "A Knight's Tale", and "The Replacement Killers" (as well as, presumably, "The Patriot" and "Black Hawk Down") is that the re-integrated footage adds little to the overall experience. Moreover, we've already seen these scenes with previous DVD releases, so we're not getting anything that is already available in the market.

Since the early 1980s, Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-fat has been battling Jackie Chan for the box office crown in Asia. However, it has taken quite a bit of time for the stars of the Hong Kong film industry to break into Hollywood's ranks. Now, along with director John Woo ("Face/Off", "Mission: Impossible 2"), Chow Yun-fat and Jackie Chan are regularly represented in American multiplexes.

Chow's first American-made film was "The Replacement Killers", a fast-paced retread of familiar territory that is ultimately disposable. In the movie, assassin John Lee (Chow) refuses to kill a cop's seven-year-old son. Therefore, the neighborhood triad boss decides that Lee should be terminated. As Lee goes on the run, "replacement killers" of John's skill fly into L.A. to take him out of the equation. Also, since the Chinese crime lord is trying to kill Lee's mother and sister in order to punish him, Lee enlists the aid of Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino), a forger, to create a passport for him so that he may return to mainland China to protect his family.

What follows for the remainder of the running time will either please you immensely or give you a mild headache. Pulsing colors and pulsing music course through the film's veins in an effort to create an aggressive, foreboding atmosphere, and frequent bursts of gun-heavy violence interrupt any attempts on the screenplay's part to tell a story. Basically, "The Replacement Killers" depends on your familiarity with the Hong Kong action film genre in order to be able to appreciate what it does at all.

To my knowledge, Mira Sorvino has not gone all out and made a film with total nudity. Here, she comes kinda-sorta close. She strips off her clothes to stand in a bathroom in only her black lace bra and panties. She plunges her head in a sink of water, and then the camera cuts to a shot of her crotch as she stands to pull on a pair of leather pants. Fans of this Oscar-winner will probably play this scene over and over again in order to get their Mira fix.

Already released on a bare-bones DVD (widescreen and Pan&Scan on a "flipper" disc) and on a special-edition DVD, "The Replacement Killers" finds its way onto the DVD format yet again, this time with fewer extras than the special-edition DVD and with re-incorporated footage that neither improves nor harms the movie.

Video:
For the most part, the 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen image looks gorgeous. The filmmakers bathed the film's environs in strong reds and moody tones, so the end result is a stylish palette on your viewing monitor. However, there are moments with noticeable grain, and you can see some specking/digital drop-outs. Still, the print exhibits no real damage, so you know that a lot of work went into creating this DVD video transfer.

Audio:
This disc's primary audio track is in Dolby Digital 5.1 English form. Since someone's always shooting somebody, there's a lot of action in the sound design. Bullets whiz around the room, as do metallic sparks. Bombastic bass buries the music score, but it's a lot of fun listening to sound effects pinging around the room (or is that the sound of my speaker mounts rattling?). The coolest audio moment takes place at Meg's apartment. She's getting dressed and getting ready to haul ass from L.A., but she senses that she's not alone. A sonic blip goes from one speaker to another, pulling a fast 360 on the audience. It's gimmicky, but you know that every speaker is receiving information from the digital mix.

You can watch the movie with a DD 2.0 surround French dub. Optional English and French subtitles as well as optional English closed captions support the audio. You no longer have the option of watching the movie with Spanish or Portuguese dubs, and you no longer have the option of watching the movie with Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese (simplified characters), Korean, or Thai subtitles.

Extras:
This DVD drops director Antoine Fuqua's audio commentary. Also, it does not have a trailer for "The Replacement Killers" itself. Since this "extended cut" incorporates deleted scenes, the DVD does not have a separate section devoted to deleted/extended scenes. Therefore, you don't get to see the alternate ending with Chow Yun-fat and Mira Sorvino kissing in an airport.

The disc retains two promotional featurettes--"The Making of ‘The Replacement Killers': Where the Action Is" (which was first shown on HBO) and "Chow Yun-fat Goes Hollywood". These are basically glorified trailers, though the second featurette is useful as an introduction to Chow Yun-fat for people who are unfamiliar with one of the most-likable movie stars of all time.

Finally, there are previews of other Sony products, including the Extended-Cut editions of "The Patriot" (the one with Mel Gibson, not the one with Steven Segal) and "Black Hawk Down".

--Miscellaneous--
A glossy insert advertises other Sony DVDs.

Film Value:
"The Replacement Killers" liberally borrows stylistic cues from John Woo's movies, but it forgets to support that visual style with narrative, emotional, or thematic substance. Essentially, this film is an exercise in killing people, but a lack of ambition is no excuse from being charged with ordinariness. Neither truly bad or any good, "The Replacement Killers" is an average production semi-redeemed by Chow Yun-fat's charismatic star quality.

By the way, Mira Sorvino speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese. Why didn't the filmmakers let her have a few lines of Chinese dialogue???