Olho por Olho

Was this the best movie I have ever seen? Absolutely not. Was it the worst movie I have ever seen? No again. This movie served one purpose, to showcase a martial arts, action and explosions. And to that effect, I think it hit its mark. I do have to say that the award for worst accent of 2010 goes to Kevin Bacon, but all in all I was entertained with the movie and have seen far more futile attempts in the past. I think the premise of the movie has entertaining, though done before. If you have the time to kill, I say give it a watch, but don't go sleepless at night because you haven't seen it yet. I say a solid 5 out of 10.

Kevin Bacon is probably the best thing about this, although his supposed British accent keeps going 'down under' into Australian. It also looked like it had to be over-dubbed afterwards as he clearly doesn't do accents well.

Djimon Hounsou is very believable, and the action scenes where he partakes in hand-to-hand combat are realistic and well executed. The dialogue is a bit patchy and the Thai characters are mostly your typical one-dimensional China/South East Asian stereotypes. I'm not familiar with the Thai director and I dare say in other hands the film might've been very different, but then access to Thailand may have been more restrictive, so swings and roundabouts.

Kevin bacon's small part is interesting but Djimon Hounsou makes this worth watching, for the integrity of the action if nothing else, but it's perhaps better suited to a home viewing rather than a ticket at the cinema.

Can you save someone by using a gun? When mercenary Curtie Church (Hounsou) is hired to take out the head of a human trafficking ring he finds himself not sure who's side he is on. When a girl named Meg finds him, he has another reason to stop the ring. This is a great action movie. Guy hires guy to kill someone, guy gets guns, starts killing...for an hour and a half. If you like movies with intricate plot lines and in-depth character development, this is not it. If you like non stop action, guns and fighting, this is the movie for you. The acting is actually pretty good, led by Djimon Hounsou and Kevin Bacon, but the action is what drives the movie. Very few action movies have a twist at the end that makes you want to re-watch right away to see if you can catch the moments that lead up to the twist, this is one of them. I'd be surprised if anyone can predict the twist to this. Very entertaining action movie that is worth watching. I give it a B+.

Would I watch again? - Yes I would to see if I can catch the twist moments I missed.

*Also try - Out Of Reach & Takedown

Elephant White is a B Grade movie. But does that necessarily mean it's bad? NO it doesn't! Djimon Hounsou really impressed me - or should I say, his character did. I get really sick of movies where the hero only disables bad guys so that, after a remarkably fast recovery, they come back to give him more aggravation. Not so Curtie. He is a professional killer who eliminated low-lives very effectively and permanently! Of course, as is so typical with films like this, the bad guys are always terrible shots and probably couldn't hit a barn door at ten paces which is always annoying. Nevertheless, in this movie Curtie (Djimon) does get hit. Fortunately, of course, it wasn't fatal but it certainly gave the film a bit more credibility.

Kevin Bacon really suited playing an Englishman. I have never been much of a KB fan but, for some reason that I can't pinpoint, as a "pom" he was excellent. Someone else (an American) has written that Kevin's English accent was terrible and I would like to ask him how he knows. Kevin's English accent was great and really suited the part! Jason Statham eat your heart out!!

Since I didn't read the IMDb page about this movie, I didn't know that there was a fantasy element - which may or may not have been a good thing depending how you look at it. So when some weird things started happening I was quite taken by surprise. I'm not sure that the film actually needed that either.

Viewers should also bear in mind that this is a Thai film. The director Pracha Pinkaew is Thai and had six previous exploits as a director (half of those with Thai titles) and so they should remember that cultural differences are bound to be evident. He is obviously respected among his peers enough to have been elected president of the Thai Film Directors' Association.

So watch Elephant White with an open mind and enjoy it for what it is. The messages at the beginning of the end credits make it obvious that a statement was being made as well as presented in an entertaining manner. And next time you go to Thailand for a holiday, just think about it.

OK I read the other reviews of this film before I decided to watch it, and to be honest I really don't know what the people who gave this film a really bad review, are talking about. I mean alright it was not an Oscar winner, but come on it wasn't a bad film, in fact I enjoyed it. The action scenes were shot well, and the dialogue while not fantastic, it was enough to keep you interested. Moreover, the story line about human trafficking and child prostitution is a one which is very real and about time more is done to tackle it in the real world, anyway the twist at the end of the film was surprising and completed the well rounded story. I have to say that Djimon Hounsou is a fantastic actor and did not disappoint in this film, Kevin Bacon was alright as well apart from the strange accent ( I actually thought my speakers were broken when he first began to talk !, I am from the UK and trust me no one talks like that here !). I was also impressed by Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul, who I thought acted really well and played a really good character, Mae and I hope to see her in more films in the future.

So would I recommend this film, well the answer is yes, it was an action packed film with a good story line and good acting, and more importantly the bad guys get their asses kicked, which is something that we don't really see to much of nowadays.