The Protector

[Alpedhuez55]

I went to see this today. Tony Jaa kicks ass. The filming had some flaws, it looked a little grainy, the lighting was not the best, but it was a Thai Production with a fairly low budget.

There was one scene that was fantastic though. He was followed around by camera as he fought dozens of guys walking up several flights of a big staircase that went around a hotel lobby. WHat was impressive was it was done in one shot and lasted a few minutes. You are used to seeing fight scenes that are cut every few seconds.

The plot was nothing to write home about. His family raises Elephants for the Royal Family and he travels to Australia to try to rescue two stole ones. More of less the same as Ong Bahk, where he playes a county fighter who goes into the big city retreive the head of a Statue.

The fight scenes were fantastic. He blows away any other martial arts movie stars who are around today. There are no wire tricks in his fights. He uses props effectively. He is like a young Jackie Chan (who actually had a tiny cameo in it) with more of an edge. THe people look like they are getting hurt, and there is a realism to the fights as opposed to things like kicking a guy and watching him be pulled back 20 feet into a pile of boxes by a wire.

It would be nice if they were to cast him in an American movie, as long as they do not water him down too much. I guess there is talk of him playing a villian in the new Die Hard movie. It worked for Jet Li in the fouth Lethal Weapon movie, where he basically stole the scene in every one he was in. He just needs to learn to speak broken English and he should be set.

[Simon Templar]

I will have to check it out. I am a sucker for Kung-Fu flicks.