Just
seeing the names role by during the opening credits may have given action
junkies a hard-on, but it never quite lives up to its come on. Still there
is a ton of action and quite the international cast. Let's begin with Thailand
where most of this was shot - two of the best with Tony Ja and Jeeja, the
female take no prisoners of Chocolate and Raging Phoenix. Indonesia offers
Iko Uwais of the Raid films, China/HK is represented by Tiger Chen (Man of
Tai Chi), Celina Jade and the great Michael Wong (in a cameo) and let's not
forget the good old USA with Scott Adkins and Michael Jai White. That is
a lot of physical talent.
Chunks of the dialogue is shot in Thai and
Mandarin and the video I watched had no subtitles, so I am sure I missed
some of the subtle complexities of the plot. Just kidding. No one comes to
this for the dialogue or even the plot. There are good guys and there are
bad guys and they want to kill each other. The bad guys show up at this village
to free their leader Adkins - Jaa and Chen are the trackers but think they
are on a humanitarian mission - and the bad guys kill everyone including
the wife of Uwais, who gets knocked out. They try and kill the two loose
ends, Jaa and Chen, but they make it back to Bangkok.
As does Uwais with revenge on his mind.
There are a couple fights in an illegal underground ring, but then the big
action set piece. These same baddies are hired to assassinate Celina, but
she escapes into the Central Police station. Safe, right? Not in Thailand
apparently as they storm the station with machine guns and explosives. Thai
cops keep running into the firing. It so happens Jaa, Chen and Uwais are
also there. Yippee. And decide to save Celina and the rest of the film is
them on the run, Jaa cooking Tom Yum Goong (title of two of his earlier films)
and then the big finale when we finally get the one on ones that we were
all looking forward too.
This is a good B action film. Perhaps too
much stupid shooting when you had so much martial arts talent and Jeeja who
is sadly one of the villains doesn't get her share of the action. Directed
by Jesse Johnson who has worked with Adkins in a bunch of films and choreographed
by Tim Man, who has also performed those duties on some Adkins films. The
main issue is we are spoiled by all the action films that are released. It
is hard to keep topping it.
