Le 5ème Commandement

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.

The Fifth Commandment (TFC) is the real deal. The action is fierce. The tension is explosive. The camera work is dazzling. This highly stylized exploration of ass whoop reminds us of A Better Tomorrow, one of the earliest John Woo films. That one wasn't perfect either, but it is in that imperfection, in that grit, that the beauty of it lies, and through that movie both John Woo and Chow Yun Fat were recognized internationally. The characters in TFC are hilarious in a comic book sort of way. This slam bam thank you ma'am action smack down is a fitting tribute to the great low budget martial arts films of the seventies and eighties. The litmus test for this movie is: did you enjoy Ong Bak? If you did, this isn't quite as good but you do not want to miss this bad ass whack fest. The Fifth Commandment is not quite The Killer or Hard Boiled, but, come one, what movie is. In its own right, this is a heavy duty no holds barred celebration of violence as a choreographed art form. Of course the plot is thin! It's not supposed to be Scent of A Woman, for crying out loud. An assassin hired to kill a Jennifer Lopez look alike doesn't take the job because it would involve killing his own brother so the people who hired him are now out to get him. Duh. Transporter 3, which has a similar plot, is a joke compared to this one. Kill Bill was only making fun of movies like TFC. Too bad it doesn't have a better ending. The last half hour drags on and ruins the entire experience.

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.

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

I would just like to point out that the 5th Commandment on the Holy Bible is actually honor thy Father and Mother, not "Do not kill" as the theme song for the movie goes. So the title already sets the mood for the rest of the picture - a bit of a joke. I would like to know who came up with the title as they made a serious booboo? I went to the DVD store to pick out a fighting movie that we could all say "how cool was that?" to, but unfortunately i picked this movie. the cover seemed good but the explanation was slightly off, going into life theories and morals etc - not really describing what is to come. I was seriously disappointed in the acting abilities of the 3 main characters, especially Angel. They might as well have held the script up and read it straight with no emotion, because even no emotion is better than fake emotion. The one single part in Ong Bak where the guy fly kicks the other fighter and says the most cheesiest and random line ever "the mustang has galloped on your face" was still better than the entire 5th/6th Commandment Movie. Krystal