Final Target

THE VANQUISHER is possibly the worst Thai film I've ever watched, and I've sat through some of their dodgy horror and ghost flicks in my time. This low budget action film is basically the Thai version of THE BOURNE IDENTITY. It stars Sophita Sriban (wooden) as a member of an assassin squad, working for the CIA, who is betrayed and left for dead by her own team leader (the equally wooden Jacqui A. Thananon).

Years later, the hunt for Middle Eastern terrorist Wajib sees the two cross paths once more as they become caught up in a needlessly complicated storyline involving the CIA, a crusading police squad, hired mercenaries, and a gang of evil Japanese ninjas. The plotting is completely confusing and doesn't seem to make much sense, leading me to scratch my head for the most part.

If you thought the writing was bad, check out the action sequences. They're hideously conceived and directed in the most awful way imaginable. Occasionally a scene of gob-smacking awfulness comes along (the CGI train, for instance) to distract you from the general inanity of it all for a few minutes, but only for a few minutes. But then you're back in the B-movie universe of Thai cinema, where the actresses struggle to speak their English lines phonetically and have zero inflection in their voices. It does pick up slightly - very slightly - in the last half an hour, but this is never anything less than a complete dud.

First of all, I must say that oddly enough the DVD movie I bought from Amazon is titled "The Vanquisher", and not "Final Target", so I had to do an actor search on IMDb in order to find the right movie. (And I will go with "The Vanquisher" title in this review.)

There is no doubt about it that this is an all out action movie from start to end, and the action was actually quite good and full of adrenaline. There was a lot of sword fighting in the movie, which was nice, aside from the slightly overdone sword sounds. And being a Thai movie, of course you have martial arts in it as well, and that too was also nicely made and choreographed. And finally, lots and lots of gun fights with all manner of weapons, ranging from handguns to LAWs.

Now, that being said, then it must be said that there is almost no storyline here in "The Vanquisher". There is something about terrorism and four different groups/factions chasing after something. And that was about, and to make matters worse, then there was absolutely no coherent red line in the storyline, the movie was jumping all over the place, trying to tie four different angles into the storyline, but failing miserably. So basically, it was all just about showing as much action as possible in 89 minutes.

"The Vanquisher" keeps jumping back and forth between Thai, English and Japanese language, which was a nice enough attempt, in theory. But the end result in the movie made it confusing and a messy one. Especially the English, sure I can relate to Asians pronouncing English oddly (as I used to live in Hong Kong), but when put in a movie, at least make a proper effort. Most of the times, is was like they just said something they had been instructed and taught, having no clue what they were saying at all.

The language was one barrier in the movie, but the scripted dialogue itself just added to the abysmal horror. The dialogue was so forced and unnatural, halting at times, it was really gruesome to sit there and witness at times.

What makes it worth to sit through "The Vanquisher" is the non-stop action, and of course the cat-fights (which I am sure there is a massive audience out there for).

Put your mind on pause and just lean back and enjoy the adrenaline-packed action ride, because "The Vanquisher" is nothing more than just that.

The version I saw of this movie was dubbed in Hindi with no English subtitles so I'm not really sure what it's about. I think the leading lady works for the CIA in Bangkok ? Anyhow it's got some pretty women in it. And if you stick with it the ending is pretty good with a lot of swordplay and fire.

A terrible ,poorly made movie not Kung Fu, I wouldn't dare disgrace the genre. an action thriller perhaps ?if it was I wouldn't have half slept through it ..state of the standard of movies to come ?no ..please . I hope not ..

I lasted 19 minutes and 14 seconds. That was all I could take. And I watched all of Ishtar, so I've seen some garbage.

The action has potential but doesn't come close to reaching it.

On the acting, think William Shatner's stilted, halting speech pattern but greatly and grossly exaggerated at times.

There were several plot lines introduced in the short time I watched. I am clueless about the direction it was going, so I gave up.

All in all, this just really wasn't a good movie.