I watched this Thai martial arts movie last night. Somewhat typical plot: village has holy relic stolen by evil henchman from metropolitan center. Lone hero volunteers to retrieve relic. Hero's a martial arts legend, yet also a naif when it comes to the big city. Hero meets up with former village son who has strayed from the path, yet becomes redeemed through his shared quest with the hero. Hero faces many battles, yet prevails in the end at great cost and sacrifice.

The tried and true plot dragged down the movie. The hero, played by Tony Jaa, is mainly wallpaper until dragged into fights. The action sequences are well-done for the most part, although the people doing the fighting must have been hauled in from the streets with no acting background or experience. The best scene is a chase sequence on foot with minimal fighting. Some close quarter combat moves made me think of Repairman Jack, but I also saw a lot of "style" moves that I think jack would eschew for more quick and brutal hits. I have no direct experience with Muay Thai fighting, but I did note that the same move Tony Jaa used to kill an opponent was employed by my three year old daughter playing with me this weekend: I'm on the ground resting and she jumps in the air to land knees first on my abdomen. Quite effective, and so much fun she did it three more times.

Watched this last night. I agree with you on the plot and the acting. The only reason to rent this is the fight scenes and the Jackie Chan gymnastics. The chase scene with the spool of barbed wire and the 2 glass panes...whoa! Yeah, the fight moves were showy but brutal at times and well done. At least it was better than Van Damme's version of Muay Thai. Mad American should watch this one and give his review.

Oh yeah, the final battle with the drugged up bad guy had me laughing. The wig the bad guy's double was wearing was so obvious. Too funny.

Yes, the barbed wire scene was freaky cool. One other thing I failed to mention that I disliked, is every time Tony Jaa did a spectaular move, they showed it two or three more times from different angles, like instant replay as part of the movie.

Yes, the barbed wire ...

I lost you there... I got to thinking about Pamela Anderson's great big beautiful... uh movie, you know Barb Wire.

I lost you there... I got to thinking about Pamela Anderson's great big beautiful... uh movie, you know Barb Wire.

There's a scene in the movie where Tony Jaa jumps through a roll of barbed wire. But not as in dives through. Instead, visualize hurdles runners and how they stretch out their leading foot and tuck in the trailing leg. Then over-lay a ring above the hurdle, say a foot and a half in diameter. Now imagine the hurdler folding himself in half to get through this ring of barbed while unscathed.

I saw a clip from a Thai talk show where Jaa duplicated most of the stunts out in the parking lot. No SFX or wire work involved.