Jailbreak

Just saw this at a film festival! With the brutality and technicality of the fights in the "The Raid" movies with some inventive camera work and AMAZING choreographies, this movie hits hard! Is this the awakening of the Cambodian movie industry? I sure hope so because this movie nailed it! It's not a perfect movie by any means, there are some weak elements to it but I have to give it a 9 here, a 8 just doesn't do it justice! Seek it out, check it out when it gets a wider release!

28th STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL. DAY 4, NOV 11th 2017. Swedish premiere.

A Cambodian martial arts action flick with confidence, dedication and adrenaline. Shot on low budget, the film crew had to be very inventive.

"Because of budget restrain, (actor/stuntman) Jean-Paul (Ly) had to train 75 local background artists for the fight scenes. Most of them had no prior experience in martial arts, or even sports. It took 6 weeks, 6 hours per week-end to make them ready. The stunt coordinator, Jammy Chhun, helped managing the courses with his team." From the trivia at IMDb.

Follow up the successful of The Raid in 2011 that make action lover around the world acknowledge Indonesia in 2017 Cambodia make their first break out mainstream action movie Jailbreak with their own martial arts and many new kick-ass faces especially Jean-Paul Ly and Celine Tran.With little to no characters development the movie focus purely on the bone breaking action with wide camera shot from start to finish and when you thought it all over it tease you with a sequel that I very looking forward to

"Jailbreak" is your run-of-the-mill martial arts movie: we get our heroes (instead of just the one, here we have a team of 5), an 'of course things are going to turn sour' set-up (Prison Break!), heaps, but heaps of bad guys bent on destroying the good ones, fighting non-stop and a plot that has been knocked-out by some random flying kick. And while it doesn't bring anything new to the table, it does its job and delivers nicely choreographed fighting scenes, with some nice touches, and some silly humor to keep things chugging along (like one of the good guys not joining a fight because he is trying to light his cigarette).

It won't make you think, but you won't, probably, be bored either.

In Cambodia, the police arrests the gangster Playboy (Savin Phillip) since they believe he is the leader of the Butterfly gang. However Playboy is only responsible for laundering the money and other crimes and accepts a plea bargain to disclose the identity of the true kingpin. The local police officers Dara (Dara Our), Tharoth (Tharoth Sam) and Sucheat (Dara Phang) and the French officer Jean-Paul (Jean-Paul Ly), who is visiting the Cambodia, are assigned to escort Playboy to the maximum security prison. Meanwhile, the mobster Madame Butterfly (Celine Tran), who is the true boss, puts a bounty on Playboy. The officers deliver Playboy and when they are leaving the prison, there is a riot and the inmates escape from their cells. Now the officers and the security guard that is guiding them have to fight to survive.

"Jailbreak" is a highly entertaining Cambodian film with non-stop action and magnificent choreography of the fights. The plot is very simple but the fights are excellent, and not only for fans of martial arts. In addition to the choreography that recalls a videogame, the film is attractive since it is witty and funny. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Note: On 04 May 2022, I saw this film again on DVD.

Title (Brazil): "Caos na Prisão" ("Chaos in the Prison")