MOVIE MUSIC UK

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

A big-budget remake of the 1999 Thai film of the same name, Bangkok Dangerous stars Nicolas Cage as a hit man named Joe who finds himself in a series of increasingly dangerous situations when he is hired to carry out four assassinations by a shadowy Thai underworld gang. In remaking their own film, directors Danny Pang and Oxide Pang hired Brian Tyler to write the score; the resulting work is rooted in the same stylistics that have adorned Tyler’s scores for similar action thrillers – The Fast and the Furious – Tokyo Drift, War, Eagle Eye, and the like – albeit with a slight Oriental inflection in some of the instrumentation to reflect the geographic setting.

Some of the cues, notably “Bangkok Dangerous”, “Fon’s Theme”, “Bangkok Reflections”, “Silent Retribution” and “Elephant” are quite attractive, with an emotional piano, guitar, synth and string combo that is very effective. The action music, of which there is a lot, is loud, fast, brash, and in-your-face, often using dance music rhythms and urban beats alongside a traditional orchestral complement. Cues like “Assassin”, “The Hitman” are, on the whole, very exciting, although one or two of the most electronica-heavy pieces do come across as being rather overbearing.

There is also a great deal of slightly more laid-back ‘scene setting’ music, notably in cues such as “The Pupil”, “Runner”, “Hide and Seek”, which allow the sound City of Prague Philharmonic to take brief precedence over the electronics, and make for enjoyable music for fans of contemporary thriller music.

As is often the case with Tyler scores, Bangkok Dangerous’s main problem is that the album is just too damn long – 77 minutes of this relentless music is enough to test anyone’s patience, and it is easy to lose interest in the score half way through, simply because the music is so overwhelming. A little judicious pruning would have made this score a much more enjoyable listen.

Rating: ***

Track Listing:

• Bangkok Dangerous (3:13)
• Assassin (1:45)
• Bangkok Dangerous Main Title (2:31)
• Fon’s Theme (2:22)
• The Pupil (2:32)
• Bangkok Reflections (2:00)
• Runner (2:47)
• Pursuit (2:45)
• Underground Temple (1:45)
• Prague (4:13)
• Silent Retribution (4:27)
• Explosive Device (1:15)
• Gangland Grenade (2:05)
• The Hitman (2:08)
• Elephant (2:10)
• Rain (1:28)
• Scooping Out the Hit (2:04)
• Second Thoughts (2:28)
• Pool Assassination (2:50)
• What I Do (3:08)
• Hide and Seek (1:53)
• Floating Market (1:37)
• River Chase (3:55)
• The Performance (1:22)
• Bangkok Downtown (2:18)
• Knife Test (2:46)
• Fire (3:40)
• The Meeting (0:54)
• The Compound Shootout (4:11)
• Yearning (1:36)
• Fate (3:29)

Running Time: 77 minutes 37 seconds

Lions Gate Records LGM2-0019 (2008)