Le 5ème Commandement

Mar 21, 2022

(2008) The Fifth Commandment ACTION

Co-produced and written by Rick Yune who was taken by Max 'Coolbreeze' Templeton (Keith David) in as an orphan after their parents death oblivious by the viewers how with a natural born son, Miles (Bokeem Woodbine) of his own. Both are trained in martial arts but as they both grow older they would go leading separate lives. One works as head of security, while the other goes as a contract killer. Although they become estranged as soon as they became adults, they would eventually collide with one another when the latest hit list is on to a popular singer Angel (Dania Ramirez) Miles was supposed to protect playing in Bangkok.

Kristal, the fifth commandment is "Thou shalt not kill" for the overwhelming number of Christians in the world. There are a few protestant sects that split the First Commandment into two and then combine the ninth and tenth into one. For them the Fifth would end up as "Honour you father and mother". However for Catholics, Orthodox, and other historical churches, the Fifth Commandment it the one that prohibits murder.

That said, this is not a great movie but this isn't supposed to be an epic movie that takes itself too seriously. Instead, it is simply an action film worthy of a couple hours distraction.

A US-made movie shot in Thailand, THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT seems to be something of a vanity piece for writer/star Rick Yune. Perhaps he was hoping to break out of the B-movie mould and become a modern-day Bruce Lee or something, I'm not sure, but this cheapjack rip-off of BANGKOK DANGEROUS was never going to do that for him.

In fact, the wooden Yune is one of the most uninteresting things about the whole production. Yune seems to do much better when he's either in support or playing the bad guy, as he has zero charisma as the protagonist here. Still, the supporting cast are better, and there are a couple of nice turns from both Bokeem Woodbine and Keith David, although neither actor gets a whole lot of screen time.

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT is a typical B-movie action flick filled with shoot-outs and fight scenes, and as is usual the storyline comes second to the battles. Yune is a trained assassin who gets caught up in protecting a Jennifer Lopez-lookalike singer from a husband and wife assassin team (shades of MR & MRS SMITH). Sadly, the action is pretty poor, with dodgy choreography making things difficult to see, and there are only a couple of good fight scenes in the whole thing. It's clear to me that British director Jesse V. Johnson should stick to being a stuntman.

It does actually say quite a lot about the movie that they think the fifth commandment is "thou shalt not kill" It isn't. Gives you some idea of the lack of attention involved in producing the movie. As a kick-fest, with guns and explosions thrown-in, it stands with some merit, though the production values are not of the best. The plot is fairly simple, yet made confusing in an attempt to give it depth. The acting is pretty good given the limited script. The sound track is pointlessly noisy in all the wrong places. In all, it gives the feeling of an early eighties effort: a pleasant enough diversion for a rainy day, but don't expect to be blown away.

Title ridiculously translated into Portuguese as "O 5o Comando" (The fifth Command) instead of "O 5o. Mandamento"