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List Price: $19.95 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 149626
Released: October 26, 1999 |
| Our Price: $10.91 |
| Used Price: $9.99 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The Replacement Killers
The director of Chow Yun-fat's first Hollywood outing, music-video veteran Antoine Fuqua, seems to be trying to squeeze the charismatic Asian superstar into a conventional American action-hero mold, and the results are dispiriting. Fuqua never lets this high-spirited actor smile, fetishizing him as a gunslinging clotheshorse in a series of garish, scenery-smashing battle scenes. As a paid assassin whose former employers turn against him, Chow enlists the help of an illegal documents specialist played, with surprising grit, by Mira Sorvino, and then spends most of the time fending off squads of killers in mirror shades. The movie is art-directed and photographed fit to kill (even the most routine incidents are eye-gougingly colorful) and edited to a hip-hop beat. It's garishly superficial. The frequent gunplay duels may keep action fans riveted, but they'll hate themselves in the morning. --David Chute
Who Am I?
Shot in English and budgeted higher than any of his previous Asian features, Jackie Chan's last film under his Hong Kong contract is an action-packed globe-trotting adventure shot with the American audience in mind. The spies and secret agent-laden plot is packed with car chases, explosions, gunfire aplenty, and of course Jackie's own brand of gymnastic martial arts. But the flood of his older films between his hits Rumble in the Bronx and Rush Hour had sated American viewers and Who Am I? wound up being sold directly to cable. It's our loss, for this mix of goofy slapstick and jaw-dropping action is his most impressive film since Drunken Master II. Playing a special forces agent (named, naturally, Jackie) struck with amnesia and adopted by an African bush tribe following a failed assassination attempt, he embarks on a quest to discover his true identity while armies of killers pour after him. After an explosive opening, the story gets momentarily bogged down in the kind of mugging humor that leaves most American audiences scratching their heads, but once Jackie kicks into gear the film is a high-speed action flurry that culminates in a furious battle atop a Rotterdam skyscraper. Jackie is at his most charmingly naive (he berates the villains, pleading "Why do you want to destroy when you can make things better?") and athletically impressive: the marvelous stunts--including a flight down the side of the skyscraper--and fight choreography make Rush Hour look like a Sunday drive. --Sean Axmaker
The Replacement Killers/Who Am I? Reviews:
Not awesome, but still worthwhile.... 
2001-05-09 - While I rarely agree with Maltin, I will say that I was SOMEWHAT disappointed with Replacement Killers. The Corrupter was SOOO much better and would have been a more appropriate introduction for Chow Yun-Fat to Hollywood. That being said -- I LOVE Mira Sorvino so it was still a GREAT movie with some GREAT action. Just not as a good as The Corruptor, IMO.
'Who Am I?' roolz! Nuff said. You won't be disappointed with this DVD.
Maltin should not be allowed to rate films!!
2000-09-23 - These are two excellent movies if you enjoy Hong Kong action movies. Being a big Jackie Chan fan, I thought Who Am I? is perhaps Jackie's best movie to date. Ditto for the Replacement Killers. Was reading the review for Titan AE and noticed that Maltin hated that movie also, BUT I remember Roger Ebert saying he really liked Titan AE because of its great graphics. If like me you hate Maltin's reviews so much that you use him as a contra-critic (you like what he hates)--these two movies are for you. Both have terrific action sequences with more action than in 5 American action movies each. And if you like Jackie Chan's playful comedic style of movies you will love both of these great action movies. Replacement Killers will keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what happens next. A super combination of two movies, rare when so many companies are packaging movies like this with one bad movie put with one good one--I assure you this is not the case here.
One thousand beautiful images blended into motion 
1999-10-22 - A perfectly executed painting, set in motion, and wrapped around a simple story. This is a piece of art. A series of beautiful images and motion. Colors and movement flow from scene to scene taking the viewer into a deep realm of perfect design. If your the kind of viewer who involves themselves in a visual experience, you can't go wrong. If your looking for a story to blow your circuits and change you forever.... don't be lazy, go buy a book.
