The martial artist Tony Jaa shows his ferocious and fierce fighting style in this movie. He beats a lot of people by simply fracturing them. The incredible action sequences are just ingeniously choreographed, which is among the greatest action scenes I've ever seen. Tony becomes an international action star after this film.

The follow-up to ONG BAK is another film in search of a plot – this time, there's some expository stuff about the search for a pair of stolen elephants, but as in ONG BAK, it's merely some very thin material on which to hang a series of blistering action scenes starring the one and only Tony Jaa. When I saw this film was coming out, I knew I had to see it and my expectations were raging high. I wasn't disappointed. WARRIOR KING improves on ONG BAK and ups the action ante tenfold, making it one of the best martial arts movies I've ever seen. Sitting here right now, I would go and watch it again if I could, and I've already preordered the DVD for when it comes out. It really is that good a film.Seeing ONG BAK after this film, it appears that Tony Jaa was holding back in that movie, not really showing us what he was capable of. That changes in WARRIOR KING, which contains two of the best-choreographed fight sequences I've ever watched. The first takes place in a burning temple and sees Jaa battling a quick-limbed gangster (the word 'Pray' is aptly carved into his chest), a young swordsman and finally a hulking bald guy, played by Nathan Jones, who you may remember as the giant at the beginning of TROY. Disappointed that he never got to fight in TROY? Well, that all changes in WARRIOR KING, as he gets to battle Jaa in two protracted, amazing fight scenes.The film as a whole is cheaply made, with all of the budget going into the action. Fine by me. The dialogue, some of it in English due to the Australian setting, is often unintentionally hilarious, and some of the "news reports" that are displayed throughout the film had the audience guffawing at the amateurish acting. No matter. No matter that the acting isn't great throughout. Sure, the bad guys are clichés and couldn't act their way out of a paper bag. Action fans are used to that kind of stuff. Jaa is great, and he gets a chance to flex his acting chops during a crucial twist that almost made me shed a tear. Petchtai Wongkamlao also returns from ONG BAK, and you may remember him as the bald comedian guy; this time he's a policeman, but his role is very much the same. Mention has to be made of the stunning Bongkoj Khongmalai, whose sultry lap dance is another highlight of the film.One thing I liked about the film was the gritty atmosphere – much of it is really sleazy, with a lady boy as the main villain (ironically, she looks more like Jackie Chan than the Jackie Chan lookalike who appears at the airport) and some of the action taking place in an illegal restaurant where they serve up monkeys and scorpions in equal measure. It reminded me of HOSTEL, and that's in a good way. Still, back to the action, and the rest of the fights in the film are excellent. A massive battle in a warehouse between Jaa and a bunch of bikers, quad bikers, skateboarders, and rollerskaters recalls Jackie Chan at his stunt-tastic best, and the single-camera-shot journey up the floors of the aforementioned restaurant, as the camera watches Jaa beat, break, and batter dozens of opponents into submission, is jaw-droppingly good. I really can't wait to see that one again.Following in the style of Hong Kong cinema of the 1980s, the best action is saved for the super finale, in which Jaa fights four huge giants and a whip-wielding ladyboy. Yes, it is as entertaining as it sounds, and there's some STREET FIGHTER-style X-ray trickery to add to the violence. However, my money's on the previous battle, where Jaa fights about two hundred suited guys, and BREAKS ALL OF THEIR BONES, as being the action highlight. I've never seen anything this violent in my life and I can't believe the BBFC allowed it – these are the guys who used to cut the one or two arm breaks in a Seagal movie, and suddenly there's two hundred all in the space of ten minutes, and they leave it in. We truly are living in great times.

This is a bad movie. Throughout the whole movie I kept cringing at every time there was a cut in a scene, for some reason the cuts look so jarringly bad. Probably because the scenes are so poorly written or because the director doesn't know how to shoot anything except for fight sequences and even that he manages to mess up, but I'll get to that later. On top of that Tony Jaa, or any of the actors for that matter, has no screen presence, every single one of his acting scenes comes off as awkwardly reading lines. To add to the suffering none of the lines have any depth, they're all saying what they're expected to say and saying exactly what they feel. The only time that we are relieved of this painful experience is when the fight sequences save the movie from being a complete disaster. The fight sequences in this movie, like in many other more modern martial arts films, seem to be more Americanized and have become very quick and brutal action. What I mean by that is that they still employ the martial arts aspect or style, but the fights are becoming more and more like fight sequences in the Rocky franchise, where the opponents punch each other like punching bags until one gives out. This is a change in modern martial arts films that I am not liking, I liked the older films because it was almost like a game of chess. In the older movies the fights were a series of exchanges between the fighters, usually lasting in punch, block, counter, punch, etc. and then finally one of the fighters lands a blow. It seems more skillful that way and even more suspenseful, both fighters seem to be evenly matched, they are thinking and out thinking the opponent, countering then countering some more until one of them slips and bang, the fighter took advantage of the slip up. It's almost like a war, where every exchange between the opponents is a battle, the fight is very undecided and very back and forth until the hero hopefully defeats his opponent, thus winning the war. These newer martial arts films seem to be more like a game of checkers, bang bang bang, very little set up and a lot of action. Part of the mysticism of the martial arts genre is how the fighters keep calm under a fight and don't break out of their stance and just start brawling, that probably has to do with the fact that martial arts is a discipline, this aspect seems to carry over to the genre and make the fights look like a dance (something pretty). That's not to say that there aren't one sided ass kickings in the older films, but that's only to imply dominance or mastery of martial arts. The point I'm trying to make is that none of the fight sequences here are pretty, from a visual, or choreographed point of view, they seem like a Transformers fight sequence but with people. Another thing I disliked in this film was how some of the cuts were made during a fight sequence. I remember one where Tony Jaa does a flip to kick the opponent and the camera cuts to a different angle where Jaa is in mid air then lands the kick. I'm here thinking "why did he cut?" and it's because Jaa couldn't land that kick for safety reason, so they cut to one where he did land it. Now I don't have a problem with taking safety measures but if a cut is going to take me out of the action sequence like that then find another way to film it or don't do that particular kick if it's too elaborate or complicated. You've already wowed most of your audience with some of the other stuff in the fight, you're doing too much at that point, take it out and find something else, something more creative. Anyhow, the story in this film is pretty weak. There's a MacGuffin elephant, Jaa has to save it, and puts him on course for all the action. Nonetheless, this has it's fan base, people looking for punches and kicks to the face and all other areas, but this just isn't for me, as a martial arts fan or as someone looking for story.

in the 80s we action film fans had a lot going for us. Because the action stars back then actually had real fighting experience. Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, and of course jackie chan , sammo hung, and yuen biao. The problem is, now all of these people are old no longer making any movies. So, what are we to do? Well luckily some Thailand action buffs thought the same thing, and thus Tony Jaa was born. You really have to be a true action film fan to appreciate the action stardom that Tony Jaa has. He is "the next great one", and his films deserve to be honored by the likes of those good old action classics. could talk all day but sadly i have a life and must go back to-oh who am i kidding, IMDb still has not posted My review of the worst movie of 2008; The Dark Knight.