Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior
Well, this is another one from the film fest of two years ago that I wanted to see. Having now seen it, I can't really say I understand what the hype is all about.
Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior: B-
Don't get me wrong, it's a good enough movie, sufficiently entertaining -- probably would make a good rental for one of those nights where you wonder what to do.
The story is fairly traditional asian martial arts fare, the young hero quests to get back an item stolen from his village by motorcycle riding gangsters ... and along the way has to take out tons of flunkies, minor bosses, in order to get to the main boss, and reclaim the item
I thought the opening tree climbing sequence was quite cool where they had like 20 some odd guys start climbing a tree, something that I've never seen in an action film before. It set a nice action tone, but unfortunately that was about the only cool thing that I've never seen before.
I know that many think Tony Jaa will be the next Bruce ... and yes, he does these incredible stunts without wires, like hopping onto and over stuff. The guy is totally athletic, however he lacks that Bruce, Jackie, Gordon L. kind of charisma ... and that ultimately is what kind of makes this movie okay instead of great. His sidekicks are far more animated, funny and entertaining.
The fighting (as well as the acrobatics) are replay shadowed, in that the thing will happen and then instantly replay ... somehow I found this kind of annoying after a while as it cut into the flow of the film. I happen to think that flow is very important to martial arts films, this one had too many cuts to slow drama scenes, plus the replay shadow thing, plus the fights that didn't really set anything up ... there was a fight, and then it was over -- not too much drama because TJ pretty much squashes all his opposition
It was okay, I guess ... and I find that that is about all I have to say.