Bangkok Adrenaline

"Bangkok Adrenaline" is a non-stop action movie from the start to the very end. And the action is off the charts, no wires, no CGI, just pure action and martial arts.

The story in "Bangkok Adrenaline", however, was fairly unimaginative and rather simple. A group of foreigners in Thailand end up with a massive gambling dept, and in order to raise money for paying the dept then decide to kidnap the daughter of a millionaire. Demanding a ransom for the girl's release, the foreigners have taken on a bit more than they initially thought was going to be a piece of cake.

I found the story to be moving ahead at snail speed, taking forever to get almost nowhere. That, however, was fortunately helped along by lots and lots of action and fighting. And all these action scenes were really great, well executed and delivered, and the fighting scenes were raw, brutal and hard-hitting.

The acting in the movie was mediocre, so don't expect to see award-winning performances here. Some people put on better performances than others, of course, but the overall was just mediocre. Despite these mediocre acting, it was really nice to see westerners in a Thai fighting movie of this caliber, especially because the fighting was just like what you'd see in a Tony Jaa movie, so there really is a lot of cool action and fighting scenes here.

If you like the action/fighting movies that have come from Thailand in the recent years, then "Bangkok Adrenaline" is well worth sitting down for a watch. I was thoroughly entertained by the sheer action, and the poor storyline fell in the background, overshadowed by the great adrenaline-filled action.

This movie is not bad at all! Its a very low budget film made by some amazingly talented stunt men in Asian Cinema. The basic plot revolves around a few foreigners in Thailand who gamble away their money and decide to make some more by kidnapping the daughter of a rich millionaire. Very ordinary plot by any standards. The comedy is good but the timing and delivery is very poor. Then, when you're just about to leave the theater and curse the fact that you wasted 10 minutes of your life, you get a glimpse of some good action from Daniel O' Neill. That leaves you pondering over whether the movie is really that bad. As you watch more, you realize that the acting gets worse, the comedy gets a little better but the action becomes glorious!

Of course, if you aren't interested in Martial arts, then this film is going to be a completely forgettable experience. Considering that the creators were all part-time stunt men who wanted to break big, I really do have respect for them. I want to see Daniel O' Neill in more movies.

Please allow me to get one thing out of the way right from the start: If what Eli Roth makes is what people like to call "torture porn", then this film might as well be "action porn"...doing away with any pretense of a plot in the name of action sequences. It's certainly a bit lacking in story, but who cares? There's a very, very good chance you weren't watching this for the plot twists and deep philosophical implications. And that's just great, because everything besides the story is pretty badass.

The basic plot is 4 friends (all inexplicably with different accents) travel to Thailand and run afoul of some criminals while gambling. Two of the friends have some pretty wicked martial arts skills, one is enormous, and the other is...well...he's pretty much just some useless hippie-looking guy. Then there's a whole kidnapping thing that reminded me The Big Hit, but again, this movie is just a vehicle for pure, unadulterated violence. This, apparently, the only way Thais know how to make action movies (and I love them for it). As per usual with modern Thai martial arts movies the stunts and action scenes are very well done and...wait...was there any other reason to watch this movie? In any event, it's massive amounts of fun provided you don't expect it to be a thinking man's movie. Just sit back, open a beer (or 6) and enjoy.

A rather silly comedy adventure (that is instantly forgettable), though the fight scenes are well crafted. It's an okay movie really but a tad light-weight. Tighter direction was needed and a story wouldn't have gone a miss.

Well, i'm impressed. This film and others like it give me hope that Thai/South east Asian movies are trying to recreate the magic of 80s Hong kong action flicks. Its a good attempt too. Lets get down to the nitty gritty though.

As you'd probably expect the story and the acting is laughable. Feels like an amateur college production, but who cares right? We're here for the action?..... wrong. There's a little too much of the bad acting and terrible comedy for my liking.

However when the action finally shows up every now and again, it's a pretty good effort. I'll stress that its not perfect in my opinion (having watched a lot of martial arts flicks). My biggest gripe is the directing. The camera work is shoddy on the most part, flicking between limbs and not showing many stunt falls in one take.

I'd definitely recommend this film after a night out. Grab a few beers and laugh. At least they're trying to make real action, something we don't see a lot of these day. A+ for effort!