One Night in Bangkok

Despite an absolutely gripping lead performance from Mark Dacascos the rest of One Night in Bangkok doesn't measure up with all the low-octane thrills that follow from watching a man ticking items off his to-do list. Given that director Wych "Kaos" Kaosayananda helmed the mouthful of a title that is Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, I was optimistic to see what he could do without a studio taking creative control away from him, needless to say that this film is certainly a step in the right direction. Even with all the vibes of Collateral, One Night in Bangkok, unfortunately, doesn't land. Awful pacing, nauseating music and fatally stalling whenever Kaos has to develop his hitman drama beyond place-holding cliches.

One Night in Bangkok is a stylish action thriller with dramatic undertones. It is heavily inspired by Hollywood blockbuster Collateral in particular but also reminds of other gritty genre films such as the Taken franchise for instance. This movie features veteran actor and martial artist Mark Dacascos who still has a lot of style, skills and charisma. The film takes place over the course of one single night that sees the mysterious protagonist assassinating different targets throughout the city. A guilt-ridden cab driver unknowingly assists the quiet hitman as she brings him to different locations such as police stations, hospitals and dance clubs.

There are quite a few positive things to mention about this movie. Marc Dacascos still has the skills to be an intriguing lead actor and he indeed incarnates the shady lead character authentically. The beginning of the movie builds up some tension and leaves several questions unanswered. The diversified locations in Bangkok are quite intriguing. The sound effects are solid and the soundtrack provides atmospheric vibes that enhance the cinematic experience. The solid action scenes are gritty and become more intense as the movie progresses. The film has overall good pace and manages to entertain throughout a reasonable running time.

However, the film isn't without its flaws. The background story of the protagonist is explained too quickly and takes away the tension built up throughout the opening thirty minutes. The plot itself is unimaginative, predictable and too hevaily inspired by the movies mentioned in the introduction. The supporting characters are at times wooden which is also due to lifeless dialogues and strange plot elements that will make you scratch your head.

The worst element are however the presence of several mistakes in the movie. For instance, the protagonist offers the cab driver one thousand dollars and an additional five thousand dollars in cash for driving him from one location to another. However, a few scenes later, the protagonist suddenly reveals that he has only four thousand dollars left. Another example is the fact that the investigating police officers suddenly refer to the female lead character by using the actual name of the actress which is quite confusing.

Other strange plot elements include a police officer who shoots a hostage multiple times for no apparent reason, another police officer's wife who mysteriously sympathizes with a mass murderer whom she has never even met and the protagonist who got shot multiple times and still stands up again every single time to fight off multiple enemies.

The pretentious scenes shot with a shaky, unfocused and unbalanced camera near a beach that start and conclude the film and are shown as occasional flashbacks throughout the movie are completely unnecessary and redundant as well.

The best way to enjoy One Night in Bangkok is to switch your brain off and enjoy the movie's action scenes, gloomy atmosphere and diversified settings. While the sound editors and lead actor have done a great job, the director and especially the scriptwriter could have invested some more time into their work. In the end, One night in Bangkok is an overall solid movie but it could have been a notch or two better with some better efforts by those in charge of creating this film.

By all metrics this is much better movie fare than the garbage Hard Kill. That one is a real mangy dog. This one is not an original story but still engaging enough for the duration and good performances from the lead male and female. Others do well enough holding up their ends. It ain't Hitchcock or De Palma, but it's very watchable.

The people saying this is a rip off of Collateral are lazy and wrong. It's a hitman in a taxi but that's where the similarity ends.

It's not great - some of the supporting actors are pretty terrible - and the story fizzles out somewhat towards the end. But it's a decently entertaining action movie for a saturday night.

I liked this film very much. One shouldn't compare it with Collatéral (2004), because of a superfluous similarity. The two films are very different. "One Night in Bangkok" is more than a thriller and/or an action film. It's of deeper sense, with nice dialogues, well written story, good acting, especially by Mark Dacascos, emotion and of course some action, although one shouldn't focus to that.

I do recommend it.

My vote: 7/10.