A US-made movie shot in Thailand, THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT seems to be something of a vanity piece for writer/star Rick Yune. Perhaps he was hoping to break out of the B-movie mould and become a modern-day Bruce Lee or something, I'm not sure, but this cheapjack rip-off of BANGKOK DANGEROUS was never going to do that for him.In fact, the wooden Yune is one of the most uninteresting things about the whole production. Yune seems to do much better when he's either in support or playing the bad guy, as he has zero charisma as the protagonist here. Still, the supporting cast are better, and there are a couple of nice turns from both Bokeem Woodbine and Keith David, although neither actor gets a whole lot of screen time.THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT is a typical B-movie action flick filled with shoot-outs and fight scenes, and as is usual the storyline comes second to the battles. Yune is a trained assassin who gets caught up in protecting a Jennifer Lopez-lookalike singer from a husband and wife assassin team (shades of MR & MRS SMITH). Sadly, the action is pretty poor, with dodgy choreography making things difficult to see, and there are only a couple of good fight scenes in the whole thing. It's clear to me that British director Jesse V. Johnson should stick to being a stuntman.

When i heard of this movie, it was very promising,like Bangkok dangerous or sort of.But hell no.The movie begins confusing and you actually don't get the right idea of the characters.The the plot goes even more confusing at the concert and keeps it's way of lame events all the way to the end.The boss-fight at the end is total OMG the collateral dmg guy was supposed to use some kind of sharp weapon not a kung fu pan.For those who don't know there are a lot of way cooler weapons in kung fu.By the way i've always thought that the evil mean guy in any movie shouldn't do kung fu, because it's kinda a defensive matrial art and it's philosophy is quite calming and purifying and he is a f**king psycho.The ending is lame as expected.I was expecting some kind of Big Hit ending where "main" hero was supposed to grab the girl after dealing with the mean dude, but no the makers of this had better idea:she keeps on singing some sappy pop-trash and he is somewhere.Rofl really... If after all this you've red you still want to watch the movie better rent it from some tormented soul

It does actually say quite a lot about the movie that they think the fifth commandment is "thou shalt not kill" It isn't. Gives you some idea of the lack of attention involved in producing the movie. As a kick-fest, with guns and explosions thrown-in, it stands with some merit, though the production values are not of the best. The plot is fairly simple, yet made confusing in an attempt to give it depth. The acting is pretty good given the limited script. The sound track is pointlessly noisy in all the wrong places. In all, it gives the feeling of an early eighties effort: a pleasant enough diversion for a rainy day, but don't expect to be blown away.

The Fifth Commandment (TFC) is the real deal. The action is fierce. The tension is explosive. The camera work is dazzling. This highly stylized exploration of ass whoop reminds us of A Better Tomorrow, one of the earliest John Woo films. That one wasn't perfect either, but it is in that imperfection, in that grit, that the beauty of it lies, and through that movie both John Woo and Chow Yun Fat were recognized internationally. The characters in TFC are hilarious in a comic book sort of way. This slam bam thank you ma'am action smack down is a fitting tribute to the great low budget martial arts films of the seventies and eighties. The litmus test for this movie is: did you enjoy Ong Bak? If you did, this isn't quite as good but you do not want to miss this bad ass whack fest. The Fifth Commandment is not quite The Killer or Hard Boiled, but, come one, what movie is. In its own right, this is a heavy duty no holds barred celebration of violence as a choreographed art form. Of course the plot is thin! It's not supposed to be Scent of A Woman, for crying out loud. An assassin hired to kill a Jennifer Lopez look alike doesn't take the job because it would involve killing his own brother so the people who hired him are now out to get him. Duh. Transporter 3, which has a similar plot, is a joke compared to this one. Kill Bill was only making fun of movies like TFC. Too bad it doesn't have a better ending. The last half hour drags on and ruins the entire experience.