Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior Movie Review

The movie stars Toni Jaa as Ting, a young martial arts expert who finds himself going to the big city sent by the people in his small village to recover a their sacred Buddha's statuette's head that was stolen. They also tell him to contact Humlae, who lives in the city and is the son of one of the villagers.

After getting there and finding Humlae, he learns that Humlae will help him find the statuette's head only if he fights in the street and makies him win money by betting on him.

At this point the movie turns into a series of fights between Ting and big American fighters that get punched and kicked and totally detroyed by Ting's moves.

Toni Jaa is being compared to Bruce Lee too, a mix of Lee and Chan they call him, and he's great fighter, but he lacks the comedic talent of Jackie (though his latest tries like The Tuxedo and The Medallion have not been any good). Jaa's expressions and emotions are nowhere to be seen and this hurts the movie as the story turns bland during the second half and not interesting.

The inclusion of the bad guy as an old man with a tracheotomy and in a wheelchair is funny at first but then just wrong and unfunny.

Despite the stupid storyline and Toni Jaa's zero charisma, his fights and stunts are great and that's what people ultimately want to see and what makes this movie worth watching.

Review by Hakeem
MoviesOnline Contributor