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

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.

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.

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")

Although it a common action/thriller movie with lots of shootings its the actual theme of the movie that makes it worth watching. Child prostitution! A theme that is very very rarely covered and yet makes, according to the end of the movie billions of dollars each year.

Taken is the only movie I can remember that also had this theme. Elephant White is not as good as Taken, its missing some elements, but the story goes a bit deeper. Bacon plays Bacon, as usual, just his English accent its kinda funny.

Altogether, like I said, worth watching, for those who like action movies and for those who won't be shocked or disturbed to see how harsh real life really can be and obviously is, for some children!