Ong Bak - The New Generation

A group of fighters are selected, via competition, to go to Hollywood for a project... or that's what they believe. In fact, after winning they are drugged and kidnapped, and forced to fight for their lives in a contest staged for the benefit of some extremely wealthy gamblers.

Bangkok Knockout is a terrible film by most standards - i.e. the story is dumb and the acting is terrible. It does, however, have some of the most extraordinary action scenes ever filmed. The cast are mostly stuntmen and fighters, and the film showcases a range of different styles and techniques going head to head. The level of physical virtuosity on display is amazing, and the scenes are brutal - fights are full contact, and stunts are outrageously dangerous.

For lovers of action cinema it's a must-see... everybody else should probably skip it.

"Bangkok Knockout" is action from the start to the very end. And you would think that to fill a plot out like this with something meaningful to make it interesting, but that wasn't to be. There is a very weak storyline to this movie. Actually the story is so ridiculous that it is almost painful to witness. However, the lack of story is more than made up for in sheer action, well-choreographed fighting scenes and violence.

The story is about a group of friends being drugged and forced into a twisted game of survival sports to entertain a handful of rich gamblers. And that is basically it. Oh, and there is a little attempt at spicing up the story by someone being kidnapped and held hostage! "Bangkok Knockout" has a lot of really nice fighting scenes, and the Thai really do make nice movies in the fighting-action genre. The scenes are well-choreographed and you often see how the hands, feet, knees and elbows connect with the targets, so you sit there in sympathy pain, wondering just how bad that had to hurt the guy (or girl) getting hit.

Three things did amuse me in this movie. The first thing was how did that white guy, Mr. Snead, manage to make that video montage that was showing behind him on the screens? I mean, he drugged these people to get them into the game, but then how did he make them all walk on one line, looking happy about it? And how did he manage to get portraits of each competitor and show it on the screen as the random fights were starting? That was just lame.

The second thing that had me amused was the way the black car crumbled as people were punched and kicked against its surface. Come on, was the car made from cardboard? I have never seen metal buckle and cave that easily, especially not on a car made for stock-car racing. That was just epic fail!

And thirdly, the sheer amount of beating each person took in this movie was just beyond mortal comprehension. No one would be able to get on their feet after such a thrashing. The beating these people took put even Jean Claude Van Damme to shame. So seeing them walk or limp away from beating upon severe beating was a bit too much in the end.

"Bangkok Knockout" is the type of movie you would watch on a day where you have bad hang-overs, and just want to lay on the couch doing. There is nothing to think about in this movie at all, it is all just one big fight scene. "Bangkok Knockout" is well worth watching a single time for the action and fighting scenes itself, but I doubt that anyone will be making a second trip back to watching this movie.

The trailer promises great action and realistic fighting. Well, the final movie delivers. The fight-scenes in Bangkok Knockout blew me away. They look so real. No wait, they are real. Kicks to the face look awesome, you can even see the dust created by the foot to face impact.

Too bad some of the actors could use a foot to the face. I'm not talking about the fighters - there acting is okay - but the foreign-characters. There is one Russian guy, his lines are so horrible it's just sad... And funny.

I went to see the movie in Korat, Thailand. It had English subtitles. Not a must - foot to face actions works in all languages - but it came in handy.

You should go and watch this movie. Just for the action. And dream about the day Hollywood hires these guys to make a movie, with decent actors for the side-story.

I don't know what these people are talking about. This movie was badass as far as the action. There was a lot of "parkour" type of stunts, 80% of it was combat fighting and fleeing on construction like broken buildings and wire fences and all over warehouses.

There was a lot of smashing, running, kicking, striking, flipping, rolling, climbing, tumbling, throwing...it was amazing what people can do with their bodies with the right training.

The direction caught every move perfectly. It wasn't shaky or messy or badly angled. The music was energetic and energizing.

I was never bored. I never skipped anything, I only replayed fighting moves.

As far as the acting, the comedy was perfect, and perhaps foreigners don't appreciate it and natives from Thailand who weren't impressed might be easily embarrassed or something but I found it funny at least. There was one scene where the manager, a business partner called Sompong, a fighter on their side, and a female friend are hiding out from an enemy. And in most movies when characters are hiding out they keep quiet and it normally works, then they exhale really loudly in relief and stay alive. Well in this movie one of the guys hiding farted LOL. And he gave their hiding spot away, and they couldn't take the smell of his fart so they ran out and exposed themselves. I'm sorry but that was hilarious, I kept laughing even when the scene was over.

The Thai actors were good and I've seen some Thai movies so I know by now their humor can be on the silly side. But the foreign actors were so cringe. I don't know if the Russian and Japanese actors had accents, or if those were speech impediments... And the Thai- American and the main villain the white guy, they didn't seem to take this seriously at all. But whatever. Their part was to sit and bid on the hero fighters.

There's a love story, some rivalries and grudge matches, girl fighters (their moves were pansy though, I'm waiting for a combat action movie where the girl's martial arts isn't all about agility but power and brutality too...).

I liked it and told pretty much everyone I came across today to watch it.

Before, i rarely watch Thai Movies, but since Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong, i became interested in some. Tony Jaa is a man of a new way of martial art in movies for me. Different than American typical fighting movies, or even Asian Kung Fu Movies, the Thai 'modern' martial art movies are fresher on the eyes.

Bangkok Knockout is surely a promising martial art movie if you watched the trailer. The moves and the arts are amazing for me. But...after I watch the whole movie (no skipping or fast-forwarding) I was kinda disappointed. The idea of the story is not so bad, but it's brought kinda poorly. Well, maybe it's intended just for domestic (not international), so there might only be limited budget on it.

The actors, i think, are some martial artists, with little to no acting experience, since it's not an easy task to find people which experts on both. Even the main star is not good at acting, and also not so good looking (sometimes I think the main star doesn't have to be handsome, but has to bee good looking, at least for the good-view for the audience). Luckily, there are two cute and pretty awesome girls. They are good-looking and can do some moves.

Okay, at first, the flow of the movie is kinda slow n little bit boring, there're almost no fighting or action scene, just some drama. But after, maybe about thirty minutes, the fighting begins. Since then, the fighting almost never stop till the end. And those fighting scenes are GREAT because of the choreography and also the skill of the actors performing jumping, kicking, punching, somersaulting, acrobats stunts and moves, and also in a matrix-bullet time-style. Sometimes, after one or two rounds of fighting, there's some stories we need to know about the background of some event etc, kinda lame for me because the foreign actors are also not good at acting, and even bad at speaking English. Btw, some scenes sometimes don't make sense, just enjoy it.

So, if you want to watch fighting a lot, with some new styles and moves and also in slow-mo, this is the right movie. But don't (ever) expect a good story and good acting.

Just my stupid review.... ^^