Alright, so it wasn't a triple-a production movie. Throughout the movie I loved the filmography, story, and character development. I'm all about obscure netflix foreign movies, and this was a very entertaining, excellent ending movie.While many give it low ratings, from someone who only watches foreign movies on netflix, it was a blast to watch. Great story, while very typical, but it progressed through the movie and character developments where obviously seen, and felt. The ending was one of the best foreign movie endings iv'e seen, obviously minus the classics, but it is well deserving above a 4.5. I'd say an 8/10 is an adequate rating for this movie.Great action scenes, the main actor obviously has tremendous martial arts skills. Reminded me of a tony jaa or donnie yen martial arts, which are great to watch
... View MoreBankok Revenge, Rebirth or Monkey Ass, whatever it's called, is not a good movie. I'd go as far to say that it's actually terrible. The plot is mostly there just to guide the main character through various events that almost always lead into decent fights. They're not groundbreaking by any means, but the fact that the dude barely breaks a sweat is kind of hilarious. Acting's bad, and the accents are very, very distracting. Especially the girl. What makes it almost worthwhile though, is the main guy. Funny and charming, he breaks limbs as if they're crackers, while spiting cheesy yet awesome pieces of dialogue. It's not Ong Bak, and it's definitely not The Raid, but it makes you wonder just how much can personality impact a movie.
... View MoreThis is my first review so it'll be somewhat crude, but I'll say what I thought of the film.The plot is somewhat mediocre at best; hero survived a fatal shot when he was a child, lived in seclusion, and now he's being hunted down by his parents' murderers. The reason for him being hunted down is quite unclear to me, since he clearly remembers nothing from his childhood, and I had a feeling if the villains left him alone, he'd have left them alone.Still, moving on with the actions; I thought there were plenty of actions and the skills Jon Foo showed are quite on par with other Thai martial art films I've seen. What I liked is that they didn't "soften" his actions. Since he can't feel pain, or most normal feelings I think, he beat 'em up real good.Acting-wise, I'd prefer if they'd all speak Thai. I don't mind reading subtitles. Having non-native speakers speak in English (not so fluently) is kind of distracting. The movie would've been better otherwise. Then again, I don't know how it would fare if you have the lead speak in broken Thai (Since I'm not sure if he's fluent in it. We only heard him asking for directions. Anyone could have).In short, take it for what it is. A martial arts film, and it'll be enjoyable enough.
... View MoreFirst off, let me state that I paid honest cash for this. So I can trash it as much as I want.Basic plot here: an honest cop and his wife and kid are shot up by masked killers. The boy survives a bullet to the dome, and is taken to a village (for his safety - and to learn bone-crushing martial arts). The bullet lodged in the back of his skull is apparently quite severe: we are told he'll "never be like others", and is expected to grow up a mute idiot....so he learns (American) English! Decent syntax and pronunciation - for a dorm-grade bro-cabulary. Though he understands Thai, and even asks for directions in it at one point, he just seems to prefer English. When asked, he always says (in crisp English), "you'll never believe me if I told you." Most of the others in this film speak English as well, so the more challenged audiences won't have to worry about all that unnecessary reading at this "foreign film"."Bah! Enough about linguism! How are the fights?!" you say, glowering. After all, the guy does learn the ancient arts of expert skull-bashing (in a weirdly sparse "temple training" montage), and quickly gets himself involved in the silly vengeance/gangs/corrupt police plot that takes up most of the film. Oh, and the guy is supposed to be autistic, sort of - whatever "no feelings and no pain" meant as a stage direction to Jon Foo.The fights - they aight. It's not groundbreaking stuff, and we've seen most of it in Merantau, The Raid: Redemption, and all the Tony Jaa flicks. Fighting sequences actually make up a good portion of the film, but they were lacking that extra oomph for the most part, and the silly blonde girl along with the rest of the terrible actors do a great job of distracting you from what could have been a somewhat enjoyable beat-em- up flick. The absurdly campish girl-gang belonged in The Last Dragon way more than they did here - the token tranny was horridly mannish and so unlike all the Thai ladyboys I've seen, I would have felt personally insulted were I of Thai origin. There's also a French guy, who chainsmoked a lot and acted like we were all supposed to recognize him or something.There was one noteworthy scene where the main dude is tightly surrounded by boxers and they all go to town beating on him. The camera, from inside the mêlée, captures in slow motion the hero making slight dodges, thereby causing all the boxers to miss and hit one other instead. Quite original!So 4/10, for the abundance of fighting, and for the fact that it was so bad it transcended that wall where excruciating becomes hilarious; some directorial decisions almost smelled of subtle barbs at Americans and the fact that the folks responsible had to cater to a foreign culture that (unfortunately) makes a large portion of the intended audience. I guess you're not supposed to 'read' martial arts flicks that deeply, though.
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