Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior

The simple story of "Ong-Bak" is enough to carry the audiences through, but poorly developed characters means that the martial arts by Tony Jaa are the real highlight of the movie. The martial arts work are impressive and varied from scene to scene and mixing chases with fights against increasingly difficult opponents means that you will be excited to see what comes next. Some of the stunts here are unlike anything you have ever seen (except maybe in exaggerated animated films) and if you're a fan of kung fu films, or if you're ok with non-stop action with a thin storyline and non-characters, you'll be blown away.

Watching this movie, it got me thinking. In this age of CGI and quick-cut editing, there’s a real lack of material for people who like seeing real physical performances like dancing, martial arts/fighting, singing and other stunt work. There's probably a lot of that market that can be crossed over as well. I mean while we have "Step Up" style extreme dancing, maybe the thin storylines those movies have can be spiced up with the elements of these type of martial arts films. You already have people jumping around and doing flips and crazy stunts so why not? Maybe a kung-fu musical where we don't get a thousand cuts and we get the actors to sing as they are doing the actions (instead of dubbing them in post) could be a real eye-opener for fans of either genre. Does that sound so crazy? It’s starting to make sense to me. With that in mind, even if a movie about martial arts doesn’t sound like your thing, give this one a try because the stunt work is impressive and there is a lot of enjoyment that can be had knowing that on screen you’re actually seeing real people throwing punches and kicks at each other. (On Dvd, August 12, 2012)