Shalen's Ong Bak

[Hucklebubba]

A delight as always, Shalen.

I actually saw this one on the shelf at Wal-Mart some time ago, but gave it a pass as I'd never heard of it before. And I never, ever watch anything that isn't girded in 18 tons of hype. Ever.

But your review has piqued my curiosity, as I'd love to see a martial arts movie featuring an accurate representation of Muay Thai. The only other movie I can think of that even gives it lip-service is The Quest, wherein Jean Claude's character and his training pal Buddy Soondead are purported to be practicioners thereof. If memory serves, though, it just looked like ye olde generic martial art in that flick, and the animal-based Kung Fu guy was much more compelling.

Ooh! I have to ask you: Does Ong Bak feature a large Russian wrestler? I saw "Big Bear" in the Quotes section, and I'm hopeful. A brash, obnoxious American with an undefined fighting style would be nice, too.

[Spiderdancer]

Alas, no. The large wrestler is in The Protector, another and more recent Tony Jaa movie. Ong Bak isn't really a tournament movie, the protag just wanders into a pit fighting club and briefly becomes embroiled with about 90% of its patrons. I don't remember any Americans being in it at all.

I saw The Quest and I agree with you 100% on that one.

The Protector has a scene where in Mr. Jaa fights a huge wrestler (the guy is literally over 7' tall), then a guy doing Capoeira, and then a guy doing wushu with a sword, in a temple that is on fire and has water all over the floor. (I might have those three out of order. Comically, each one disappears somehow from the scene after he is knocked down/out.) It's a wicked cool scene and the movie has several others of equal quality. It just doesn't have what's known as a "plot" or "coherent story direction."

I consider those dispensable if we're talking about Tony Jaa.

[StarOpal]

I honestly hadn't heard of it before. I happen to have access to this movie and I'm going watch it based on this review alone.

Who says reviews don't have an impact? Indeed, they can change the world, one movie at a time.

[Spiderdancer]

(Does wavy-armed spider dance)

Woo hoo!

[StarOpal]

Note to self: Must check out Tony Jaa movies. He's groovy.

Big Bear seemed to be Australian to my ears.

Don't get me started on the Quest.... It has the worst aging make up ever. Okay, I just had to get that out. That's it, I'll stop there.

[Spiderdancer]

Huh? Yeah, he's Australian. It's a pity some subtitle translations omit the "Mustang has galloped on your face!" line, though. Heh heh. We were cracking up at the announcer - I think it took us a couple of minutes to realize he actually WAS speaking English, but his accent was so bizarre they subtitled it anyway (frequently as things other than what he actually said).

As for The Quest, yeah. I love cheesy tournament movies, but the beginning/end bits are just silly.