The film is #1 on Rotten Tomatoes' list of "The 100 Worst Reviewed Movies of All Time".
The film grossed less than 30% of its budget at the box office, making it one of the biggest box-office failures in film history.
Out of 119 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, not one is positive, resulting in an abysmal 0% rating. It shares this distinction with another 2000's film (coincidentally, also a Warner Bros. film), which is One Missed Call (2008).
While filming a large-scale action scene that involved explosives, a detonation occurred too close to Antonio Banderas, who escaped with minor burns. Afterward, he was allegedly very vocal with the FX team about their miscalculation of the explosion's size.
According to director Wych Kaosayananda, co-star Antonio Banderas suggested Lucy Liu come on for the role of Sever after having previously worked with her on Play It to the Bone (1999). When the director had earlier read the script, he felt that it was rather similar to the films The Killer (1989) and Leon the Professional (1994), while actually visualizing that Chow Yun-Fat and Jean Reno could be perfect square-off leads. Franchise Pictures didn't find either Chow and Reno financially viable though.