Rambo's Kung Fu Review: Ong Bak Review
Hey All, I am going to start going through my Kung Fu collection and writing reviews on it. Hope You all enjoy!
Plot: After the head is stolen off of his village's Buddha, Ting (Tony Jaa) goes on a mission to get it back.
Review: Tony Jaa may be the most ridiculously sculpted human being since Bruce Lee. Is he the buffest person on the planet? No, but the things this dude can do agility and strengthwise should not be able to be done by any human being on the planet. This is on display in Ong Bak, where as most people know, he did every stunt without wires or CGI (yes kids, there are films made WITHOUT CGI!). I have been a fan of Tony Jaa's since I saw the AMAZING "The Protector" in theatres 2 years ago. I had always heard about this one, but had yet to watch it. It was sitting on my DVD shelf collecting dust. After seeing glimpses of a preview for the sequel, I decided to finally give it a go round. I must say, it was a good kung fu flick, but I have seen much better. That said it still kept me entertained.
There was some great action choreography and direction in this movie, and some pretty run of the mill stuff. One of the first parts of the movie is a cool little scene where they are all climbing up a tree for some sort of challenge. This displays some awesome choreography and action. That is not the best part though. The underground fight scenes in this movie are just straight up SICK! You really get to see some great stuff in these. They even have the obligatory crazy ass roided up white guy (actually two of them) that appears in every modern Kung Fu flick. Tony Jaa uses his fists, elbows, knees, feet, or whatever it takes to defeat his opponents. These were very well choreographed, and in my opinion the best part of the movie. On top of the awesome underground fight scenes, there is a great chase scene where Ting and Humlae are running from a group of gangsters. Tony Jaa does some ridiculous flipping, jumping, sliding, and climbing in this scene. As awesome as the scene was, it, like many others was held back by so many double takes it started getting ridiculous. There were some great moments here and there, but I do not think there was much special outside of those scenes that was anything new and breathtaking to the genre. Entertaining, but just not anything to write home about.
Characterwise, this was pretty run of the mill. Tony Jaa is the quiet lead, we have the comic relief sidekick in Humlae/George, his sister, Korntuan, the chain smoking villain that talks with a voice box, and his minions. All pretty basic stuff. Nothing here really that stuck out too much.
Over all, this was a solid Kung Fu flick, but I am not sure what sets this one over some of the other recent ones that have come out. In my opinion the sequel looks like it will be a lot better. There was enough good action in this one to keep me entertained, and Tony Jaa's amazing stuntwork has to be appreciated. While it may not be a classic, it has enough good stuff to keep you watching. I would recommend this one to any Kung Fu fan, whether casual or hardcore.
BEST MOMENT: I gotta say the first fight where Ting just takes the opponent out with about as much of a struggle as the swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
MOST "WTF" MOMENT: The slow speed chase with those weird little street cars. It is bad enough 1 driver was stupid enough to drive off the edge, but the fact that ike 23 others followed is even dumber.
RATING: 7/10
RAMBO'S RANDOM RAMBLING: They call out Spielberg in one scene. "Hi Spielberg, Let Do It Together." Is written on a wall in the background.
Happy
I really enjoyed this film. Nice review too! Keep em coming