Ong Bak 2

[Drunk Monk]

twitch has the trailer
http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/tony-jaa...romo-reel/

[Drunk Monk]

It's the worst marketing move ever. This has nothing to do with OB except that it's Jaa & Baa Ram Ewe. If they had titled it something different, like Tom Yum Goong or Pad Thai or Mussamun, that would have been so much better.

Also, my version had fantitles, which only marginally mapped onto the flick. If there's another DOOM gathering before the official U.S. release, we must watch the fantitle version because there are scenes where there's no dialog and the titles are scrolling like mad, scenes where there's lots of dialog and no titles, and many moments that leave one wondering if they are even the right titles for this film. The fantitles provided extra entertainment, which was sorely needed.

On the up side, there's some great fights. Jaa's choreography is still brilliant, still amusing, still fresh. There's some crazy elephant stunts too, but not stuff that hits you right away as astounding. You have to step back and think about it for a sec, then you realize that it's a crazy stunt because a mistake and Jaa would be trampled to death by elephants. The elephants don't seem to be abused. The Thai say they love their elephants. Jaa was raised with them. Jaa plays with many different styles of fights, akin to the first fights of Chocolate (fight #1 the Bruce Lee fight, fight #2 the Jackie Chan fight). Here, Jaa works classic kung fu and samurai fights and even gives his own spin on drunken style, 3-section and rope dart. The fights are solid, fast paced, frenetic and very entertaining. Jaa got a good chuckle out of me on several occasions with his inventiveness in choreography.

The story is completely predictable from scene one, told from the middle at the beginning, then back to the middle, then the end. The beginning and the end have all the fights. The middle has this interlude of classic Thai dance, which is interesting if you like that sort of thing, but might be lost on most martial arts fans. It stars the Thai-Richard-Kiel from Dynamite Warrior as a villain. He's entertaining. But the story is very uneven. Maybe it would have been better with better subs. I believe that it was best with the fansubs, but I've got odd tastes. Mostly, this is a throwback to classic martial arts films, where it's all about the fights. There's an attempt to have a story in the middle, but that's really a wasted effort. The film would have been stronger had they just stuck with the fights and skipped so much plot development.

The killing blow is that people might expect another OB or another TYG. OB2 is not either. I felt the production value was the best of the three flicks, but the worst so far. OB was fresh because it was first and offered a great depiction of Bangkok. TYG had that phenomenal single shot fight scene. OB2 will be hampered by a deceptive title. Nevertheless, I'd rather watch a fresh Jaa flick than a new Seagal...it still has DOOM potential, especially with the fansubs...

[Drunk Monk]

Good news: OB2 opens this Friday
Bad news: It only opens at 10 theaters in America
Good news: They are in reach of each of us: Berkeley, CA: Shattuck Cinemas 10, Pasadena, CA: Playhouse 7 Cinemas, San Francisco, CA: Lumiere Theatre 3, West Hollywood, CA: Sunset 5
Bad news: It probably won't last long there.
Good news: I still have a DVD version.
Bad news: It's fantitled
Good news: It's good fantitles that add entertainment value.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I thought you said it was bad?

What are Fantitles?

This weekend I will be going out two evenings in a row. I don't know if my system could actually cope with going out a third time.

[Drunk Monk]

Oh you poor, poor sheltered Hollywood babe.

I said it was worse than some of the Baa Ram Ewe flicks, but it's still Tony Jaa. It's still got some great fights. It's the martial arts genre after all, which is a lot like porn. If there's a decent plot, that's a bonus. But otherwise, it's all about the kill shot.

[Drunk Monk]

There's a reason why I post this here. It's because ONG BAK 3 explains ONG BAK 2 and finally you get to know why it's called ONG BAK. They make the connection to the original ONG BAK, which they should have done in OB2. Sadly, it does little to save this flick. Tony begins with a massive torture sequence - it's sort of like watching him berate himself for embezzling all that money. Then there's a lot of THAI CHI. Get it? Thai Chi. That's the best thing about this flick is that I can make such a clever pun. The fights are decent, but they are disrupted by long, self-absorbed, slow motion shots and plot (I won't say 'too much plot as there is little plot'). It's a total fast-forward to the next fight sort of flick. And the finale, well, it has one of those serious WTF? moments, that almost works, but in the end, totally and completely fails.

Such a shame. Jaa had so much potential. But now he's like the Thai Seagal.