The Sanctuary (2009) User Reviews

Okay low budget action - don't expect ONG BAK!

[udar55 · 5/10 · 6 February 2010]

Kirk (the amusingly named Michael B.) discovers an ancient Thai vase buried under the ground at a temple he visits. What he doesn't know if that this is one of three stolen national treasures and he is quickly killed after he pawns the vase he found. His twin brother Krit (also B.) then deals with a group of mercenaries led by Patrick (Russell Wong) who are posing as geologists to locate the other two items. Once they do, Krit must stop them from taking the priceless items across the border.

A Thai action film about a guy fighting to save something stolen? No way! Michael B. (sometimes credited as Mike B.) started his career as a stunt man/punching bag for Tony Jaa in ONG BAK. This is his second feature as a lead following BRAVE (2007) and re-teams him that film's director Thanapon Maliwan. While B. does perform some impressive moves, the movies are just kind of there, sort of like low end Isaac Florentine ripoffs. The fights are plentiful in the short 80-minute running time. On the plus side, this one isn't an editing and wire-work mess like the recent RAGING PHOENIX, JeeJa Yanin's disappointing wire- work laden follow up to CHOCOLATE (2008). I would say the last 15 minutes are worth the view as B. takes on Erik Markus Schuetz (also from Jaa's features) and Russel Wong (still looking fit in his 40s).

Not much to wonder

[limona_razvan · 4/10 · 12 July 2010]

The story seemed intriguing enough and the military man in the beginning looked tough enough to carry the movie. Unfortunately, after 3 min of good combat, I find out that he is no more and the movie shift to nowadays. Bad idea ! The kids in the movie turned out to be less than thrilling and more pop stars than fighters. The bad guys, a mix of European and eastern descent, can't act because kicking is mainly their thing and not impressive there also. Russell Wong is the only one who can act, but his martial arts are wooden, a far cry from Romeo must die.The rest of the movie is just a mish mash of bad action and martial art, with the usual religious kind of experience who make the hero, suddenly, invincible.

It's pretty bad...

[rdamian1963 · 3/10 · 30 January 2021]

Where to start? Horrible acting, terrible gun play and not much of a story. There are a few good fight scenes, otherwise the movie is a bust

Run !!!

[runningsanta · 1/10 · 10 June 2022]

Worst movie ever. Horrible writers , the worst acting ever , didn't even know the difference between straw and hay.

Run far away from this nightmare.

A routine low budgeter with decent action

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 6 December 2020]

THE SANCTUARY is an ultra low budget Thai martial arts flick starring some unknown guy called Michael B. alongside Chinese star Russell Wong. The plot begins with a historical flashback involving some priceless treasures being stolen; cut to the present day and various characters are now hunting for them. What follows is a story with boring plotting and extremely limited characterisation, alongside the usual dodgy acting. But there's also plenty of action liberally spaced throughout, and it's pretty decent. Our hero gets beaten for most of the running time only to discover his true powers in the last 20 minutes, which offer one kick-ass fight after another. The choreography thankfully avoids wirework and CGI for full-bodied realism and it generally works well, lifting this film above its constraints.

Another typical Thai Movie, Good Martial Arts, Crap Story

[destroyerwod · 7/10 · 29 March 2011]

Seriously i don't know whats wrong with Thai people. JC Van Damme proved over 20 years earlier that you can have a good Thai movie based around typical revenge story and kick boxing. After All the American KickBoxing comes from the Thai Muay Thai. But these days every time i see a Thai movie, it have to be settle on some "no money" village with typical monks, and the main protagonist always have to go after a national treasure being stolen or something like that. I mean this is like a total Ong Bak rip off on every side. The fight are pretty good, but the story is dumb. But Ong Bak had that little feeling about it back then that manage to have us captivated. But here, basically you get that guy that in the beginning get his ass totally kicked out, and after a supposed magical thecnological or whatever medal is activated, he become a brute in combat. Seriously Mike B is an awesome stuntman or Martial Artist, depend on how you see it, but basically i think the fights where at the level of Tony Jaa here, but the story was as dumb and interesting as Ong Bak 2 & 3... I prefer to watch the same American kick boxing movie of the 90s 25 times like they did back then to that kind of Thai story always being centred around national treasure and mythical stuff giving them strenght or whatever. Basically if your looking for a no brainer MA movie, than yeah its a good entertaining, but i couldn't care less about these characters, there is almost no development, and nothing to make you feel for them. Suddenly the main character pass from a wimp to a master... with a 1 min solo kata training... cmon... like i would take the classic and overdone story of the 90s American movies anytime before that(hero is a good fighter but get his ass kick by a stronger fighter, train for many weeks/months with a master, come back and kick the bad guy ass)