The Replacement Killers
Antoine Fuqua (US, 1998, 87 min.)
A killer with a conscience hooks up with a forger in trouble to do battle with the eponymous "Replacement Killers." The film features one of the more interesting photobooth appearances, as the booth serves as hideout and target for a hail-of-bullets attack by the killers themselves. It's also one of the more realistic appearances of a photobooth on film, as we actually see the bills go in, and wait the allotted time before the photos appear.
John Lee (Chow Yun Fat) comes to Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino) to get a quick passport to get him out of country so he can save his family from vengeful mobsters. Sound good so far? Lee refuses to kill a cop's son, and the replacement killers sent to do the job and kill him head after the two of them, all the way to an arcade in Los Angeles where Lee is getting his passport pictures taken.
Contributed by Brian
The booth looks kind of shabby, but it'll do.
Chow Yun Fat's gravitas follows him everywhere, but seems kind of ridiculous in this context.
Meg counts out the three dollars.
The curtain is closed and we head inside the booth.
John starts talking.
The first flash goes off.
Disappointment, determination? A hope that the photos will turn out nicely?
What a dump.
Finished with the photos, John emerges from the booth.
John keeps his eyes peeled as Meg wanders around.
John waits, and we see Meg in the photo booth mirror.
John spots someone who doesn't look too friendly, and he and Meg quickly duck into the booth.
The bullets begin to fly, and their target is the photo booth.
Meg ducks out the other side of the booth; thank heavens for the double curtain design.
The poor photobooth takes the brunt of the killers' bullets.
John peeks through the tattered curtain of the photobooth.
As John waits on the other side of the booth, the photos slide out, and we see the barrel of a gun in the hands of a killer.
John looks down to see that the photos have come out.
Not one to leave without getting what he paid for, deadly assassins on his trail or no, Lee grabs the photos.
One the other side of the booth, it's none other than everyone's favorite character actor Danny Trejo, as Collins, the most enthusiastic of the replacement killers.
Collins bursts through the booth, but John and Meg are gone.
Those hard-won photos are put to good use as Meg puts together John's new passport.
These are not, of course, the actual photos taken in the booth, but we'll forgive them for that in light of the rest of their admirable commitment to accuracy.
