‘Killers’: Maximum RPMs (Rounds Per Minute)

Some films create heroes, while others are content to worship them. As starry-eyed as it is stylish, “The Replacement Killers” opts for adoration all the way.

The object of veneration this time around is Hong Kong action star Chow Yun-Fat in his American debut. The veteran of some 70 Asian films, Chow achieved cult status over here with too-cool-for-school performances in features like “A Better Tomorrow,” “The Killer” and “Hard-Boiled,” all directed by the master of Hong Kong action, John Woo.

Now a Hollywood player after the success of “Face/Off,” Woo is one of “Killers’ ” executive producers, which explains this film’s pseudo-Woo qualities. Put together by first-time director Antoine Fuqua, “Killers” smartly echoes the master’s stylish visuals, but Woo’s trademark emotional delirium proves harder to duplicate.

Described in the press kit as the “noted director of Coolio’s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ video,” Fuqua is the most visually gifted of the group of action directors (including “Con Air’s” Simon West and “The Rock’s” Michael Bay, and characterized by Premiere Magazine as “They’re Bold and Brash and Love to Blow Things Up”) who entered the business via music videos made for Propaganda Films.

Though the look of “Killers” is nothing if not slick and commercial, Fuqua, cinematographer Peter Lyons Collister and editor Jay Cassidy are adept at literally using smoke and mirrors as well as off-beat camera angles and rapid cutting to establish a moody visual presence. When in doubt, their motto seems to be, cut to bullets breaking glass.

Part of the plan here is to treat Chow Yun-Fat as an ambulatory part of the decor. With his slow, purposeful walk, impeccable clothes and opaque, impenetrable gaze, Chow’s every on-screen minute is mythologized by the filmmakers into the portrait of a laconic king of cool, a soulful murder machine who cares and kills in equal measure.

Chow plays John Lee, a Chinese assassin marooned in America who’s fallen under the sway of the all-powerful Mr. Wei (Kenneth Tsang), an aphorism-quoting crime lord who says things like, “We shouldn’t be chasing our problems, we should be solving them.” You got that right, chief.

Wei’s problem of the moment is the death of his drug-dealing son at the hands of tough cop Stan “Zeedo” Zedkov (Michael Rooker). Wei wants our guy to commit a murder that will enable Zedkov to share his pain, or else risk the death of his own mother and sister back home in China. But John Lee, in his somber, Zen master of mayhem way, is not so sure this is a good idea.

If that sounds murky, it’ll have to stay that way, because Chow, whose idea of a big speech is, “I will need guns,” has more dialogue in subtitled Chinese than English. In truth, he’s one of those guys who lets his weapons do the talking for him: In one scene he apparently fired off an impressive 546 rounds with two firearms. “His hands became blistered from the repetitive gunfire,” the awe-struck press notes report, “and medics were on standby to bandage them throughout the night.” Who knew being an agent of mass destruction was this much work?

Trying her best to fit into this super-macho environment, where no one has smiled since the Mesozoic era, is the plucky Mira Sorvino. She plays Meg Coburn, a fabricator of false passports who has the glib street smarts of a gilded gutter rat. Events conspire to have Meg team up with John Lee, and though there were no reports of medics on standby when Sorvino was working, the actress discharges a hell of a lot more rounds than she did in “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.”

Sparely written by Ken Sanzel and clocking in at a brisk 88 minutes, “Replacement Killers” is an improvement over the excessively jokey scripts that burden many current action films, but even with smooth visuals added into the mix, this film is neither transcendent nor transporting. Rather, like a cold and elaborate art piece made by a computer, it’s a stranger to emotional connections. Just as the killers of the title have a hard time replacing John Lee, “The Replacement Killers” is Woo wannabe all the way.

* MPAA rating: R, for strong violence and for language. Times guidelines: lots of bullets and numerous balletic deaths.

‘The Replacement Killers’

Chow Yun-Fat: John Lee

Mira Sorvino: Meg Coburn

Michael Rooker: Stan “Zeedo” Zedkov

Kenneth Tsang: Terence Wei

Jurgen Prochnow: Michael Kogan

A Bernie Brillstein/Brad Grey, WCG Entertainment production, released by Pictures. Director Antoine Fuqua. Producers Brad Grey, Bernie Brillstein. Executive producers John Woo, Terence Chang, Christopher Godsick & Matthew Baer. Screenplay Ken Sanzel. Cinematographer Peter Lyons Collister. Editor Jay Cassidy. Costumes Arianne Phillips. Music Harry Gregson-Williams. Production design Naomi Shohan. Art director David Lazan. Set decorator Evette Knight. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes.

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* In general release.