Tony Jaa appears once again, beating the shit out of this dude who steals his small elephant (not a real elephant, just a decoration). It's a way better fight than in the last Bodyguard movie, and as he leaves the scene the bad guy complains that this dude is even better than the lead actor. :D What a difference between his fight in the first Bodyguard movie, before he attained his fame, to this one shortly after (overall the entire movie is better than the last).

Though as with the previous one, it's really not about Tony Jaa, I'm just happy he makes an appearance, and would be happy if he made more short appearances like this. It doesn't have to be full movies, any stunt scene's fine, but it seems he doesn't do just stunts, he does the whole thing. But enough of Tony Jaa...

It's another awesome action parody! Khum Lhau (I guess Wong Kong was his undercover name in the last one) is better than ever, doing crazy things, not always stunts but... crazy things. He has a wife now, he has a full-time job, and in the end we learn... that this is actually a prequel to the previous movie! Whaddayaknow! The movie is not a direct prequel, it's a stand-alone thing even if the end clearly tells you the last one happened after this one

Plenty of the themes/puns from the last movie repeat themselves too. Like the mysterious warriors who appear in the corridors to battle him (the main character) as he's chasing through a warehouse (the samurai who accidentally lights his robe on fire is a favorite), and how the movie starts with a car pulling up, though this time with a gang boss and his bodyguards rather than the main character.

Compared to the prequel this one's on a way bigger budget though. There's armored cars, tanks, monster trucks, motorbikes, explosions, gunfire, fistfights, flips and flights and all kinds of fun stuff. The special effects are great, in fact it's all great, it beats the previous movie with a mile and manages to add some relationship drama and music to the mix. Maybe it doesn't have the same serious undertone as the last one, but that didn't really fit in with an action comedy anyway. Hoping for a third! And Tony Jaa. Word.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

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Here's that movie that put Tony Jaa on the map! He only appears briefly, in a shop, beating up a few people the main character of the movie (also director of the movie), The Bodyguard, is about to take down. But that was apparently enough to make him famous enough for a movie of his own. It's not the best fight ever, but he does get to show his skills a bit. The movie posters/covers didn't originally feature him at all, yet suddenly he appears on newer releases alongside the main character as if he was the star of the show. :)

This is not about Tony Jaa though (his grand debut actually came out a year before this, my bad - and he's been in the business way longer), it's the story of a bodyguard: Wong Kom (acted by Petchtai Wongkamlao). It starts with action, almost right away. A car drives up, people get out, they enter the building, they chitchat a bit and a speech is about to go down when suddenly the entire room is ablaze with gunfire.

Wong Kom fails to keep his employer alive, but he escapes unscathed himself. He kills quite a few people in the progress, and does the best he can (or does he?), but in the end his employer's son (and future heir of the father's incredibly large business conglomerate) blames him. But when the son decided not to take Wong with him on a meeting, he gets chased and shot at, escapes, meets a lady, gets found out again, and in the end... well maybe I shouldn't tell you about the end. But they get married. Doh!

It's a comedy with tons of action, and it's a Thai movie so if you're not used to Thai culture you should be aware their humor can be pretty crude. I'm glad they're not speaking English cause if they did I'd be turning down the volume... if you know what I'm saying. It's crude, rude characters fly errr get on the wire. But it's great fun! So far the Bodyguard series is the only real Thai action-comedy series I've seen, but I wouldn't mind stumbling upon a few more. Good watch.

 rated 3/5: not bad

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Young and Dangerous is an older series of HK action movies (from the nineties) that used to be controversial, detailing the lives on triads in a way that I guess is pretty realistic. It's all about easy money; women, and the gangland codex: loyalty, responsibility and their own form of justice.

This movie's a modern take on that old series, maybe a finale, maybe a revival, maybe a remake - but whatever it is it does a great job at whatever it's doing. It makes me want to go back and relive the classics.

The main characters are a bunch of thugs, but not just thugs: they're friends, and though they'll kill a man like it's nothing, there's much more to them then that. At the end of the movie I'm left admiring, definitely not their actions, but their fierceness, their loyalty and brutal honesty. Being a gangster is about really manning up, respecting your elders and doing what you have to do. Even in the underworld crimes are punished, but that's a part of life, they live without regret and take things day by day.

I don't know how much of a real insight this is into the world of crime and whatnot, but it's a fascinating tale regardless. The main character's a born leader, and the rest of them are an interesting bunch of individuals. The fights aren't flashy, they're direct, bloody sometimes, and the pace is laid-back. There's tension, but with a few exceptions everyone still keeps their cool. I haven't seen the old movies so I can't compare this to those, but I will. This gave me a taste for more. Good watch. The poster is totally misleading btw, they're not dressed like that even once.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

You know you know
I see you see
But hear this hear
The scenes deceive

What's there is clear
What's here is me
But where is here?
No fare is free

Not even to the
Paris Wheel

Special ID is Donie Yen's newest action flick, and the first one I've seen in quite some time where he doesn't play the role of some master or swordsman. He plays a cop, an undercover cop, and I am glad! It's in movies like this that he works best! IMHO! If you've seen Kill Zone or Flashpoint, then you'll love it. It might not be fully as good as those two classics, but it's pretty close, it's a great movie, it's gritty, it's intense, it's clever, and when the two characters are fighting at the end of a highway, middle of the air, a car hanging off the side... well you get what you paid for. :D I can't help but wonder if any of those bruises and cuts at the end are real, cause the fight definitely looks real. But it can't be, can it?

Collin Chou's in it too, and Andy On (who btw has no official martial arts schooling, but used to love Jackie Chan movies and copy his moves - fun fact) and newcomer Tian Jing. The plot? Oh it's about an undercover cop who's been undercover a bit too long, about an assassin, about some Triad (?) business, the regular. But don't let the generic cops and robbers plot bring you down, it's one of the best martial art flicks of the year.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

Maybe I should go with the Thai title, Tom Yum Ggoong 2? That's what I was thinking, but since I've always written the English titles of movies that I watched I'd better stick true to my habit!

I've been looking forward to this flick for quite a while, not least because Tony Jaa really doesn't make as many movies as I wish he did, but also because the so called female Tony Jaa, JeeJa Yanin, makes an appearance. It's the first movie they're both in, and even though she doesn't get as large a role as I wish she had, there's plenty of good fights involved. And since she at first assumes Tony Jaa killed her uncle, they get to fight each other before teaming up to fight the enemy (and at one point fight both each other and the enemy... but that doesn't work out well).

The RZA plays the bad guy, and Marrese Crump plays a big role, as well as partial stunt double for The RZA... I just found out he was a double for the RZA in The Man With The Iron Fists too! Definitely want to see more of this guy in the future, he's a great fighter.

As for the movie itself? Well Kwan lost his elephant again, and he goes to fetch it. There's some plotting against royalty involved, an underground fight club, an undercover agent, his old police buddy Mark (Petchtai Wongkamlao), a pair of unfortunate sisters with considerable skill in martial arts, plenty of misunderstandings and a plot that... really isn't messy at all. How can people call it messy? If you don't skim through the movie it's great, I didn't spot any loose ends, just a lot of crappy CGI effects.

They should've cut those out. They kill the authenticity of the other fights. When you're no longer sure what's real or not, where there are wires and where there aren't... it's just no longer the same experience. And it's even worse when you can see the wires or special effects. That's why movies like the original Ong-Bak and Protector will always be the classics, and no matter how flashy effects they add they won't be able to outshine them. Really, I'm not watching movies like this for the flashy effects, I'm watching them for down-to-earth action, real fights! Real stunts! Real shit!

This was still way better than the second and third Ong-Bak though. Maybe it didn't have as awesome stunts, but the story's not bad. It's the special effects that bring down the quality... a LOT. That said, it's definitely worth a watch though. Check it out.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle