STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
The Thais are fast taking over the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese in terms of producing the most acclaimed martial arts films in the heart of their home countries, without the aid of any Hollywood CGI or props to spruce them up. We've had Tony Jaa in the Ong-bak films delivering his breath taking visual displays and now we have this less successful effort from director and co writer Thanakorn Pongsuwan, focusing on some competitors in an underground interfusion of basketball and muay thai, that obligatorily forgoes the use of a decent plot and unhammy acting. Sadly, it's also just never any fun, the close ups on the fights and their sheer relentless nature proving more distracting than entertaining and it all ends up feeling like it's really dragging on. Some fun here and there, but generally as much fun as a 'fireball' in the gut. **
The Thais are fast taking over the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese in terms of producing the most acclaimed martial arts films in the heart of their home countries, without the aid of any Hollywood CGI or props to spruce them up. We've had Tony Jaa in the Ong-bak films delivering his breath taking visual displays and now we have this less successful effort from director and co writer Thanakorn Pongsuwan, focusing on some competitors in an underground interfusion of basketball and muay thai, that obligatorily forgoes the use of a decent plot and unhammy acting. Sadly, it's also just never any fun, the close ups on the fights and their sheer relentless nature proving more distracting than entertaining and it all ends up feeling like it's really dragging on. Some fun here and there, but generally as much fun as a 'fireball' in the gut. **