The Replacement Killers

The Replacement Killers is a ‘90s B-movie action thriller. In many ways, the film is such an embodiment of that categorization that it is tempting to just end my review there. The thing is, if you only compare it to its peers in the category of campy garbage, it actually has a lot going for it. It is head and shoulders above the vast majority of Steve Seagal’s ‘90s offerings, such as Hard to Kill or On Deadly Ground, or any Jean Claude Van Damme film from the same era. It just can’t really punch above that weight class in any meaningful way.

John Woo’s English language films have never impressed me and The Replacement Killers is a knock-off John Woo film through and through. It stars Chow Yun Fat, a frequent collaborator of Woo, in his first Hollywood role. It has bonkers gun fights. It features organized crime as an integral plot element. Yet, it lacks some of Woo’s signature motifs, like the artful use of slow motion or doves randomly flying out of frame at the beginning of an action scene. It comes across paradoxically as both too polished and not polished enough compared to the Hong Kong movies that inspired it. It is too polished in that everything is very slick visually but at the expense of the realism provided by Hong Kong’s low budget style. It is not polished enough in that action scenes don’t feel as meticulously choreographed, inventively staged, or practiced to perfection as those found in the films of any celebrated Eastern action filmmaker, Chinese or otherwise.

In fairness, calling it a knock-off might be slightly incorrect. The film was produced by Woo, but directed by Antoine Fuqua in his feature film debut. While Fuqua would eventually achieve some brief greatness with Training Day, there is little in The Replacement Killers that hints at this level of talent. Instead, it feels like Fuqua was doing his best John Woo impersonation to impress his boss. Why Woo didn’t just make the movie himself, if his fingerprints were going to be all over it anyway, remains a mystery to me.

It is very easy to become fixated on the action because everything else in the movie is very stupid. The acting is largely terrible, split between some hamming it up and others as wooden as a board. The writing is lazy, with too many events motivated by convenience to the story rather than by the motivations of the characters. A great example of this is in who, and when, the villain’s henchmen are willing to kill. A car mechanic gives them everything they wanted, including selling out his friend? Kill him because it will make for a dramatic reveal. A “hostage” who is entirely incidental to their actual target? Don’t kill her on the spot, the script says she’s an important character who can’t die yet.

The movie also treats Los Angeles like it’s some kind of lawless wasteland. Bouts of extremely loud and long lasting gunfire from prolonged shoot outs never seem to raise the attention of the police… unless it’s exactly relevant to the plot. Then the police arrive just in time to see the aftermath. Certain liberties must be taken to make an action film like this work, sure, but the way all the gun fights are staged and shot, whether in a back alley, video game arcade, or rundown office building, is at the same level of intensity as the centerpiece shoot out from Heat. This, combined with the B-movie aesthetics, made Los Angeles feel more like the barricaded prison island from Escape From New York than a real city.

The crazy thing, though, is that despite all these flaws I didn’t have a miserable time. The Replacement Killers is schlock, but if you give in to it and just enjoy the ridiculous action scenes and guffaw at all the bad acting, it is almost endearing how trash it is. This style of ‘90s action flick is formulaic as all get out, but that formula was successful for a reason. So, for me at least, even as I was taking note of the movie’s numerous flaws, I found I couldn’t help but enjoy myself. The Replacement Killers is a fun watch even though it is quite clearly a stupid movie. This is why I think it rises above the level of so many of its B-movie contemporaries. A Chuck Norris movie is schlock whose only entertainment value is found in the ironic viewing. The Replacement Killers is schlock that is entertaining even when watched at face value.

Would Recommend: If you don’t mind turning off your brain to enjoy a good shoot ‘em up.

Would Not Recommend: If you prefer your action movies to be both entertaining and good.