Force of Five

I love Thai martial arts films, but the last couple I've seen have been disappointing purely through the choice of main actors. BANGKOK KNOCKOUT featured a cast of interchangeable teenage characters who were more irritating than inspiring, and this latest effort has a cast of kids (including BORN TO FIGHT's Sasisa Jindamanee) in place of adult stars! As a result, much of the story that plays out is slightly cheesy, child-oriented and trivial, but I guess it helped cut down on production costs. You don't have to pay kids as much as adults, right?

The DVD case bills this as an out-and-out action flick, with the aforementioned pint-sized heroes tackling terrorists at a besieged hospital. Well, yes, but that entire set-piece doesn't occur until the last half hour of the movie. Until that point, we get a very slight tale involving a martial arts school and a kid with a dodgy ticker. The melodrama is overwrought and despite a few funny scenes, it's mostly forgettable.

Then things shift to the hospital, realism goes out of the window, and the story takes a back seat to make way for a series of frenetic fight scenes featuring kids kicking and kneeing adults in the face. The bad guy duties are handled by WARRIOR KING's Johnny Nguyen, a Vietnamese fighter who kicked ass in the Tony Jaa film. Sadly, he doesn't get anything to do here, other than stand around while kids knee him in the face. The fight scenes are great, featuring the same kind of breakneck choreography and ultra-cool slow-motion shots as in the best Thai martial arts movies, and it's just a shame there weren't more of them taking place throughout the movie. That way, it might have approached greatness rather than mediocrity.

Realistic acting is horrible but that's kinda normal for kid actors. The main boy and girl fighting most have been training for 3-4 years to be in this. Their fighting scenes are all done by them no stunt double. If get the blue ray you get see the behind the scenes. I won't give out spoilers like many have. This is NOT for young kids under 13. There is some swearing and the fighting is blood nothing kids 13 and older has not heard of from others. Honestly these kids if keep doing fighting like this when get older then would definitely be the next Tony Jaa.

When I picked up this movie from Amazon, I was under the impression that it was going to be a movie in the likes of Ong Bak and Warrior King, I had no idea that it was going to be a family-like fighting movie with children. And the DVD cover with Johnny Nguyen on the cover was sort of misleading as he wasn't really the lead actor or main character.

But still, as a family movie, then "Force of Five" actually was rather good. It had a nice story, that was a bit too unreal, but still a nice enough story at heart (no pun intended). And the children in the movie were actually doing a rather amazing display of athletics, martial arts and stunts. And watching these kids in action, there is a very likely possibility that we will see more of them in the future, because they did really great with the action and fighting.

"Force of Five" also had the worst possible acting performance I have ever had the pleasure of watching. Richard William Lord plays a drunken bully in this movie, and wow, oh my God, wow! That was horrible. That performance had me curling my toes in disbelief. But I guess that was sort of the comical relief in the movie. Him, and then the Japanese old guy who came to Thailand to study Muy Thai, though the Japanese actor wasn't bad.

I think that "Force of Five" will go straight to heart (again, no pun intended) with a younger audience - say children or teens - because the movie was lacking some appeal for a mature audience. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the movie, though I think had I been a young kid or a teen, then I would have enjoyed the movie all the better.

If you like Thai martial arts movie, and got 113 minutes to spare, then "Force of Five" is well worth a watch if you have nothing better on your schedule.

From the same Thai camp that brought, Ong Bak, Chocolate, and Raging Phoenix comes the latest from them, "Power Kids". The story line in cute but what turned me off about it is they use a lot of foul language for being a kids movie. Not recommended for family viewing.

There is another down side to this movie...the fighting is not believable....on the plus side we get to see another up and coming star of the genre, a young lady called Sasisa Jindamanee, you might remember her from "Born To Fight".

Get it for collecting purposes if you are in to that.

p.s. The version I got is 1:12 mins long.

Produced by Prachya Pinkaew, who directed Ong-bak and Chocolate, two of the better martial arts films of the past decade. This one definitely doesn't measure up to those. It's about a group of kids who fight a bunch of terrorists who have taken a hospital hostage. They want to get a new heart for their dying younger brother. The story is ridiculously schmaltzy and the kids are cruddy actors. They're not bad martial artists, though. The (very short) film is almost worth watching just for the climactic fight, part of which takes place in a very thin hallway that allows the kids and their adult nemesis to bounce off the walls like crazy. It seems like the movie would be ideal for kids, but it gets far too violent, with the kids constantly being shot at with AK47s.