Jukkalan

From what I've seen (mostly Tony Jaa's work, plus a few others), Thai martial arts films seem to run on more frenetic energy than those of other Asian sources. That's a good thing. I've not noticed JeeJa Yanin before, but here she approaches Jaa's level of intensity, balanced with a touch of Jackie Chan's comedy. The script hovers between incoherence and stupidity, but who cares? A couple of early fight scenes, uniquely using bicycles and parts as weapons, justify watching this action comedy. The dialog only delivers a few really good laughs, but they help.

Outtakes run during the credits. But they're mostly dialog screwups, rather than the more entertaining stunt mishaps that Jackie provides.

This film's American title must have been written by a master of the obvious. Heck yeah, Jija Yanin kicked plenty of butt in Chocolate and Raging Phoenix, it's not like I need a separate movie to tell me she's badass. On the other hand, having another film with Yanin kicking butt is always welcome.

The girl may be badass, but the movie isn't so much. It does have action in sporadic bursts, and they are pretty well-choreographed. A few of the fights are pretty imaginative (one cool scene involved Yanin fighting around a bicycle). But in between the action, the movie will either drag a lot with the sappy romantic subplots, or weird you out with some of the goofiest and weirdest comedy Thailand can offer. Seriously, why are there midgets everywhere? Why does the crime boss sound like a retarded kid who just sucked on a helium balloon? Why does the guy with the stupid haircut ride a fuzzy robotic horse? Why...ah, forget it.

As far as the story goes, it started off being very simple, almost to the point of being dumb and pointless. After a while, however, things just became totally random and irreverent, thanks to a number of useless subplots layered on. The main conflict gets shoved to the side, while the characters go on and on over their silly love lives. It's too disjointed to really work. And despite being really colorful and goofy, the characters aren't that well-developed either.

The film looks pretty cheap too, with standard photography and editing, and a rather low-quality production value. Acting is pretty mixed all around; Jija Yanin is probably the single most redeemable value to this film, for she does put on an appealing performance (in addition to pulling off some impressive fight moves). Everybody else ranges from being silly to being dumb. Writing is not terribly sophisticated either. This film uses a decent mix of rock and pop songs on its soundtrack.

It's a weird, stupid, fun little flick, with enough action and weirdness to appeal as a novelty. Sadly, it's nowhere near as awesome as I'd expect, especially when compared to Chocolate or Ong Bak. Unless you have an affinity for weird and silly Thai comedies, this film is not recommended.

3/5 (Entertainment: Good | Story: Poor | Film: Poor)

Jukkalan (2011) is not a very good movie. Not even the kicking ass of the gangsters can keep me watching as this show was not very good. It didn't have what I was exonerating about Action Jackson from 1988. Magnet Releasing is the worst studios to see shows from. Only a little bit of action and a whole lots talk.

If you've seen Ong bak series, bangkok KO, chocolate or any action stuff from siamese team. You will know what you will see once you make a decision to watch this movie. One thing that I notice from every thai action movie I ever see is they never tell us how the main character know how to fight! They just can fight automatically and very skillfully. I don't know but I honestly enjoying this movie because its fighting choreography is awesome although we always see that move, you know like bare-knuckle and I wonder why they never using gun, that's more easier right? But for me, for action lover like me this movie is considered OK and watchable, have some funny moment and interesting subplot like love, drugs dealer and like thai always do. Just watch it!

This Girl Is Bad-Ass!! (2011) is currently available on Tubi and tells the tale of a woman who is hired by two gangs to sneak items to various locations. Being stuck in the middle her life is constantly at risk...until she decides she should be the one to bring down both gangs. This movie stars and is directed by Petchtai Wongkamlao (The Bodyguard 1 & 2) and also stars JeeJa Yanin (Chocolate). The storyline for this is fairly dreadful but the fight scenes at times are really good. There are some really clever fight sequences with good use of props. There are also some comedy squeezed into this, especially one of the mob bosses voices. Overall this movie is really bad, painfully drawn out in some areas and isn't as good as Yanin's Chocolate. I would recommend watching that over this and would score this a 3/10.