There's nothing arresting about the Pang Brothers' remake of their 1999 Thai-language flick Bangkok Dangerous. Though not a total misfire, this English-language recalibration is surprisingly dull and will disappoint fans of the twin, Hong Kong-born filmmakers.

Nicolas Cage signed on to play the assassin who calls himself Joe. Cage's producer credit suggests he had more than an actor's faith in the project and his belief will likely be rewarded by the film's take at the domestic and foreign box office. Moviegoers hoping for a special blend of style and action will be left holding the bag.

During a Prague-set prologue accompanied by ominous voice-over, we see that Joe is a ruthless, exacting killer; that doesn't translate into Bangkok Dangerous being a fresh or formidable entertainment however. He summarizes his approach to his profession by delineating four pretty obvious rules. 1. Don't ask questions. 2. Don't take an interest in people outside of work. 3. Leave no traces. 4. Know when to get out.  The time to retire has arrived and Joe is ready to disappear after one last job consisting of four separate hits to be carried out in Bangkok against targets designated by his client, a local crime boss.

To confirm he's reached the end of the road, Joe violates rule number two and allows his hardboiled exterior to be pierced by two people he encounters in Bangkok. The first is a petty thief named Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm), whom he hires to be his errand boy with every intention of offing him when the job is finished. Instead, Joe takes him under his wing, becoming a mentor to Kong's Grasshopper. He also falls for a deaf girl Fon (Charlie Young) who works in a pharmacy. Whereas Joe was deaf and mute in the original, now it's Fon who is cut off from the seedy city by being hearing-impaired.

Jason Richman, who penned this summer's Kevin Costner vehicle Swing Vote, wrote the screenplay. Suffice to say, it's as incisive about the subject of assassination as Swing Vote is about politics. The platitudinous wisdom Joe dispenses doesn't add up to the hoped for meaningful character study. Regarding Joe's status as a cold, isolated loner, gregarious hitmen with humanitarian instincts are rarities on film and the character has only one direction to travel. 

Cage does lends some gravitas along with his familiar if somewhat ghoulish look and the setting has unexploited potential. But for the film to really work, for the audience to identify and care, there has to be more substantive interaction between Joe and Kong and more non-verbal communication between Joe and Fon.  Attempting to soften Joe during a date scene -- while sampling ultra-spicy food and acting skittish around a baby elephant -- isn't sufficient; nor is Fon bringing him home to her mother. With that hairdo, he screams violent psychopath. A passionate sex scene might have helped.

While the production values are competent, there are no technical fireworks to compensate for the story's dearth of energy and originality. The visuals are uninterestingly dreary. A recurring motif of bullets passing through water is cooler in theory than practice. Although the body count is fairly high, the picture isn't excessively violent. During a chase sequence through a floating market, one of the few scenes set during daylight hours, a man's lower arm is severed and there's a fleeting shot of a villain's grenade-ravaged abdomen.

These images conform to the movie's cynical and completely humorless outlook. Joe's eventual loss of nerve and other signs of an awakening conscience don't lead to anything positive. The appropriately bleak ending may surprise those accustomed to false cinematic redemption. It's actually the movie's only real bright spot. A certain amount of self-loathing comes with the territory when you're a killer. Presumably whoever taught Joe the trade warned him that it wasn't going to be a picnic.

Apparently, Nic Cage didn't get much useful advice before or during filming. And though one can applaud his decision to go abroad and dip a toe in Asian cinema, it's time for him to seek out a high-quality drama. His patriotic sleuthing in the National Treasure franchise, his tortured turn in Ghost Rider and now his work in Bangkok Dangerous may be lucrative, but they're far from satisfying. Cage can do better and so can The Pang Brothers.

(Released by Lionsgate and rated "R" for violence, language, and some sexuality.)