BANG (2025) - Mark Reviews Movies

Bang, Saban Films

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | July 10, 2025

A ruthless hitman gains a conscience after he literally receives a new heart in Bang. This is either a very silly idea, worthy of an over-the-top action movie, or an admirably sincere one, worthy of a story that's more introspective. Director Wych Kaosayananda's approach to the material, though, seems to be to get through it with as little consideration and effort as possible. The result is a movie that's patently ridiculous but also too dull to find much fun or irritation in it.

There's our protagonist, for example, whose most interesting quality is his name. He's Bang, and with that name, the man was probably destined to be either a professional killer or a drummer. Jack Kesy's performance amounts to little more than existing in front of the camera, which surely isn't entirely the actor's fault, considering the whole movie's greatest ambition solely appear to be that it exists.

Bang works for a crime boss named Morgan Cutter (Peter Weller), who at least has some twisted characteristics. The guy likes to watch the hits he orders, munching on popcorn and cheering whenever his assassins' snuff movies reach the bloody parts. Weller's the one exception among the actors and, well, every other element of the movie, because he's clearly savoring the chance to play a villain and even makes completely nonsensical dialogue sound cool while he's doing it.

Anyway, Bang kills a bunch of people, helps Cutter liquidate the body of a henchman who's going to get married in acid, and ends up being shot in the chest multiple times while sitting in a bar. He survives completely by chance, because a married couple with a new baby were in a car accident at the same time. Gwen (Marie Broenner) and the infant lived, and after Cutter threatens the medical staff at the hospital, Bang receives the dead husband's heart. Considering how many bullets actually go into the guy, the sheer coincidence of the car crash might be the least contrived part of the premise.

Bang awakens and, after learning he received a heart transplant, immediately wants to know more about the person whose heart is currently beating in his chest. Obviously, this is a life-changing event that puts everything into perspective, even if Kesy basically continues the blank stares and monotone intonations that define Bang's attitude as a merciless killer. Bang starts looking into and basically stalking Gwen, who reacts surprisingly—or, as some would probably say, unbelievably—unfazed by the stranger's behavior and her husband's recent, tragic death.

Be warned at this point: The gimmick here is something of a twist. Bang appears to continue working as a murderer for Cutter, but he's actually rescuing the intended victims and moving them and their families into an abandoned mall that Bang buys (Kaosayananda offers an extended montage of every staged killing, just in case the dialogue and the first couple of fake murders aren't enough for the audience to catch on). Somehow, neither Cutter nor his killing-happy associates, who gift Bang his attacker's head upon his release from the hospital, suspect a thing, until screenwriters Peter M. Lenkov and Ken Solarz decide it's finally time for a big showdown.

Some of the action during the climax is competent, as Bang and the men he has saved use the setting to their advantage. Does it justify the lengthy and redundant setup, the awkward implication that Bang and Gwen are on the path to romance, the absence of any sense that our main character has a personality that could be changed in the first place, or the lack of momentum or creativity within the plot? Does that question really need to be answered?

Let's take at least part of one of those critiques back, because a quick look at the end credits does reveal that there is a little imagination to Bang. As it turns out, Cutter's henchmen and targets have names like Johnny Finger (Steve Bastoni), Momo (Kane Kosugi), and Chad Two-Tons (Elliott Allison). The best of the bunch, perhaps, has to be Overweight Irish Man (John Flano), which was probably a placeholder in the script, but one can hope that this movie has a gangster walking around with that nickname. The notion is more fun than anything else in it.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products