Rat-a-tat-tat-tat

‘The Replacement Killers’ accepts no substitutes for nonstop violence. In “The Replacement Killers,” Chow Yun-Fat plays a killer hired to murder a cop’s young son. When he balks, a slew of assassins is dispatched to murder him. He teams up with Mira Sorvino, who plays a tough petty criminal with a golden heart. Rated R.

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Movie violence, even stylized, arty movie violence, can be numbing. Ask the teenagers who saw “The Replacement Killers.”

Teens (especially males) tend to love screen mayhem. Lots of guns, lots of bodies, lots of crude, rude action. Yet this film left many yawning after several shoot-’em-up scenes remarkably similar in tone and execution.

“I like action movies [because] everything is so fast,” said 15-year-old Bradley Matthews of Irvine. “This started off that way [but then] just did the same thing over and over again.”

Pal Mark Rathery, 14, of Costa Mesa added: “Yeah, [Chow Yun-Fat and Mira Sorvino] went from one place to another just shooting people.”

That’s pretty much the picture’s M.O.: Yun-Fat (who is used to this stuff, having made an international reputation portraying a laconic hero in much better action films) and Sorvino (new to the crime scene) are a duo who know how to kill without being killed.

Yun-Fat is so good at blowing people away that he adopts an artist’s approach to murder. With his graceful, slow-mo spins before unloading his .45, he’s the Michelle Kwan of the genre. The miscast Sorvino just takes aim and fires away.

The movie tries to soft-pedal its violence by layering on a morality tale about Yun-Fat’s decision not to assassinate a child, but teens saw through that.

“I didn’t think much about that [because] there was so much going on that was just killing,” Bradley said.

Mark was even blunter: “Bogus. [Yun-Fat’s character] dusts all these guys, [and then] he’s a nice guy too?”

It wasn’t all thumbs-down for “The Replacement Killers.” Avery Ko, 15, of Irvine enjoyed the movie’s energy and unrelenting pace. He thought Yun-Fat was a great hero, mainly because he projects confidence.

It didn’t hurt that Yun-Fat is Chinese. Avery, a Japanese American, thought it was “awesome” that an actor from the Pacific Rim could star in a Hollywood movie.

“He’s really cool, so it sounds good to me,” Avery said.

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His favorite scene came when Yun-Fat meets Sorvino in her dingy office, where she makes forged passports. Killers out to get Yun-Fat burst in, machine guns blazing, and Yun-Fat makes quick work of them.

The finale, when Yun-Fat, with a little help from Sorvino, eliminates a legion of bad guys, also thrilled Avery. He liked how the movie turned Yun-Fat into an indomitable killing machine, especially since his targets were all evil.

“None of those creeps had a chance [against him], so he just wasted ‘em,” Avery said.

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PARENTS’ PERSPECTIVE: David Sanchez of Irvine didn’t think teens would be hurt by the violence in “The Replacement Killers” (“Aren’t they used to this stuff by now?”), but he agreed that it was repetitive and pointless.

He did, however, object strongly to the fact that a boy is a target for assassins.

“That’s such a bad idea [to have] a child be hunted by killers,” Sanchez said.

His wife, Rosa, added that if there’s one saving grace, it’s that Sorvino gets to play a smart, brave woman. Yet even her character is weakened by lack of believability. Rosa Sanchez couldn’t understand how a lowly forger could evolve into a confident killer in a matter of seconds.

“I liked that she could do everything [Yun-Fat] could,” she said, “but you wondered how she became so good [at gunplay and defending herself] out of nowhere like that. I think even kids would wonder about something like that.”