BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Comeuppance Reviews As part of a centuries-old tradition in Thailand, certain people take on the duties to protect their all-important - and perhaps even sacred - elephants. These special people are known, naturally, as Protectors. Raised in rural Thailand as a Protector, like his father before him, Kham (Jaa) takes his responsibilities seriously - VERY seriously. When an unscrupulous gangster named Johnny Yai (Nguyen) kidnaps Kham's two beloved elephants, Kohrn and Por-Yai (yes, the elephants have names), Kham travels to Sydney, Australia to find them and bring them back home. Teaming up with a Thai cop named Mark (Wongkamlao), Kham has to fight wave after wave of baddies who really take their elephant-napping to heart. It's all being controlled by whip-wielding gangstress Madame Rose (Xing). Will Kham battle his way through the meatheads and retrieve the elephants? Find out today! Tony Jaa is just the Man. When it comes to Martial Arts fights, stunts, and choreography, he is arguably the best of his generation. What this man can do is unbelievably great and highly impressive. He gets the utmost respect not just for his considerable natural talent, but for his refusal to use wires or stunt doubles during fight scenes. His penchant for long takes is hugely appreciated and stands as the 180-degree opposite to the annoying "quick-cut" trend of today. The word on the street is, unfortunately, he has bad management that force him to do a lot of stupid movies and he went kind of nuts. He's kind of like the action movie equivalent of Dave Chappelle. Of course, this doesn't diminish him in any way.The plot, simple as it is, shows a fascinating cultural difference that we really enjoyed. In most movies, a disc of some sort would be the sought-after item. In this case it's elephants. The fact that elephants are so central to the Thai culture, and thus such a driving, motivating factor for the characters, was fascinating. To us Americans, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but we had to get over that and delve into the Thai mindset as best we could. Add to that the highly-impressive fight scenes and a fruit-cart boat chase, and you get sucked in to the movie quickly and effectively. There's even a boat-induced exploding helicopter. We don't think we've ever seen that before.Of course, there are some time-honored action movie clichés we all know and love (besides the fruit-cart chase and the exploding heli), such as the wacky taxi driver, the warehouse fights, etc. Of course, to viewers of Ong-Bak (2003), the whole structure will seem very familiar: Tony Jaa goes to a new and unfamiliar city in search of something important to his culture, and has to fight a ton of people in the process. Rather than criticize this, we applaud it. So many action movies have overly-complicated plots that don't serve the movie well. The Protector and Ong-Bak have nice, simple plots that clear the way and leave enough room for Tony Jaa to do his thing. No fuss, no muss. Finally.Sure, there is some shooting and a few blow-ups, but, thankfully, the talent of Mr. Jaa is given an excellent platform here. He really shines as he fights not just the "cannon fodder" type of goon but also other fighters with various levels of expertise: some of his opponents are simply labeled "Capoeira Fighter" (Crowder) and "Wushu Fighter" (Foo). Of course, he also has to take on a small gang of meatheads, but he has a secret weapon up his sleeve… We can see all the countless hours of blood, sweat and tears that went into making this movie, and it certainly doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated. For a top Martial Arts viewing experience, we heartily recommend The Protector.

KineticSeoul I saw this movie just right when it came out and saw it again. Both times, I was just bored with the story and found the fighting parts to be silly and kinda boring to watch. When it came to the story, it just felt drawn out and I just didn't have any interest in what was going on. The story is about a guy that loses his elephant by poachers that kidnap and sell the animals for food to rich people. Some may claim, it's the fight scenes that matter for this types of genre. Which in a sense I do agree. But I think there needs to be at least a good enough momentum that excites the viewers. For example, the Transformers movies is primarily about Transformers, but if there is no drive that leads to the action sequences. Than the cause for watching the fights just lacks emotions. Now I am not saying martial arts movies needs a solid story to make it work. But I think what counts, is the transition into the fight sequences. The fight scenes are alright, but nothing really hard-hitting as "Ong-Bak". And like I said the fights aren't incorporated into the story very well and sometimes just seems random and silly. When it came to the twist, it was suppose to be an emotional part of the story. But I just could not get into it, because this movie is lame and silly. This whole movie is basically to showcase Tony Jaa's acrobatic skills and stunts. Which is fine, but the fight sequences were a bit on the dull side. Except that one scene with Tony walking up the stairs while throwing people overboard in just one long shot. But besides that all the other fights just didn't stand out or got me excited. I respect Tony Jaa and I think he is a great practitioner of Muy Thai. However I think it's the hard-hitting aspects of this art that makes it exciting. I guess they try to blend Muy Thai and acrobatics to make it more exciting. But it was done much better in "Ong Bak". I could sort of tell they tried to have a story, but it just isn't integrated very well into the fight scenes.6/10

richieandsam WARRIOR KINGBloody hell... this guys really doesn't hold back!This film is about a kid growing up in a family that respects elephants. He has two elephants that he loves, but when his father gets killed and the elephants stolen and deported to Australia. He goes on a mission to find them and bring them back.This is a moving story and very nice. The elephants look so nice and the relationship they have with the boy is amazing. They are very protective.The action is also very brutal. He is an amazing fighter, and when he is fighting it reminds me of a more brutal, serious Jackie Chan. He is jumping, flipping and kicking all over the place. It all looks so real too... there are scenes where I was thinking he actually was hitting the other actors... it looked so painful and realistic. There is also a fantastic fighting scene which was all shot from one camera and didn't cut away... it was a long scene and the fighting was amazing... it was very well put together.There is also another scene that I loved where so many people got their legs and arms broken. It was just snap snap snap... It made me cringe a bit, but it was just a great scene.The acting was alright... Tony Jaa plays the main character. He does a great job. You can see the emotion in his role towards these elephants.There were a couple of funny moments in the film. I quite like the fact that this film had a few different elements in it. Comedy, action, drama and thriller.The film is mostly spoken in Thai, so if you don't like movies with subtitles, then you won't really enjoy this. Subtitles never really bothered me. In fact some of my favourite movies are Japanese horrors.I will give this film 7 out of 10.Very entertaining and a lot of ass kicking! The other actors must have woken up either very sore or in hospital the day after shooting this movie.For more reviews, please like my Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl

Thomas Hardcastle Tony Jaa is back with a bang, as the baby-faced yet deadly Muay Thai master. This time, he plays a young man who travels to Sydney in order to find two of his father's elephants who were stolen by a criminal organisation with less than favourable intentions.The result is a revenge movie of gargantuan proportions. With this film, Jaa has taken the success of Ong-Bak and upped the ante, creating more havoc, fighting more bad guys and breaking more limbs as he tears his way through Sydney's underworld in search of his pachyderm friends.A number of scenes in this film stand out. Jaa fights a group of gigantic men, akin to Zangief of Street Fighter fame. He also fights against a Capoeira specialist with the moves and direct look of Eddie Gordo from Tekken. However, the scene that stands out above all others in this film, is one that literally takes the breath away. Jaa fights his way up three floors of a pagoda-like structure, fighting countless enemies, throwing them off things, breaking objects onto their heads, and breaking their arms. This may seem like average fight-movie thoroughfare, but when you consider the fact that the whole thing was done in one take, it should do nothing but impress. Watching it, as already mentioned, takes the breath away, and paints Tony Jaa as the legend he surely deserves to be.Overall, this is a terrific film. More fights, more falls, more carnage. A terrific piece of cinema, with something for everyone. Jaa really is here to stay, and aren't we just glad he came.