White Elephant

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

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.

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.

In Bangkok, the assassin Curtie Church (Djimon Hounsou) is hired by a businessman to kill six men. Job done, the employer proposes another contract to Curtie to kill the lord of the traffickers that had addicted, prostituted and murdered his daughter.

Curtie seeks out the Englishman Jimmy (Kevin Bacon) that is an arm dealer and he rents heavy weapons. Then Curtie provokes a war between gangs to eliminate the greatest number of white slave traders. Meanwhile, the young prostitute Mae (Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul) meets Church and helps him to release other girls. When Mae vanishes, Curtie seeks her out and finds the truth about Mae.

"Elephant White" is a messy action flick with great action scenes but a confused screenplay that blends mystery, thriller and action. Kevin Bacon is weird with his British accent and I do not understand why the production didn't hire a British actor for the role of Jimmy. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Olho por Olho" ("Eye for an Eye")

Very very unfair reviews. Kevin Bacon made a super job of the accent. Just because you're not used to seeing him do an English accent does not mean it is bad. Actually it was quite good. Overall the acting was good and the action scenes where good. The story line was good and the ending was good. What more do you want! Blood? For people who visit Bangkok or knows anything about day to day life in Thailand it adds entertainment for sure. Amalgamating Asian casts for western audiences is probably the hardest exercise in the film industry until we get another Bruce Lee. This film is not about martial arts at all, contrary to many posts here. The last film that tried this Bangkok dangerous failed miserably and I can assure you this film comes to the rescue in that department. Overall entertaining and well put together.