I saw this at Jerome and Shannon’s:
Ong Bak.
This movie kicks serious, serious butt. I enjoyed about 95 percent of it and the parts I didn’t enjoy went by really fast.
My objections to what was a marvellous piece of badass entertainment are three:
Evil guy is in a wheelchair and has a laryngectomy. And SMOKES THROUGH THE HOLE. Ah, pure evil. What tripe, I wish they’d play to type for a change. Why pick on cripples? If it was a statistically balanced number of evil villains, I’d be a lot mellower, but so many cripped villains… sigh.
Tony Jaa is poetry in motion but when it comes to acting he’s reserved to the point of being like, well, like a solid object.
The script is the lamest ass excuse for a string of chase, fight and fight and chase scenes ever concocted in any human language, although there are two or three hilarious sight gags, including a great piece of graffitti in the middle of the market chase.
Shannon came home and said some very amusing things about her weekend. I think the funniest was, “I’m having a shower to get the smoke off” as she doesn’t smoke and the women she was hanging out with this weekend do. And I’m thinking, 13 days no smokes.
I saw Ong Bak several years ago when I friend brought a terrible subtitled version back with him from Thailand. All I remember is a lot of giant buddhas.
I have spinal clinic stuck in my head AGAIN. Curse you!