Wendy's Films of 2010 #61: Ong-Bak (2003)

I nearly rented Smokin' Aces, but luckily Mike told me not to. He instead suggested Ong-Bak.

So the story goes like this: a young man (Tony Jaa) is sent to retrieve the head of his poor village's temple buddah, Ong-Bak, which has been stolen by a man working for a Thai gangster in Bangkok. Once there he is forced to recant his vow never to use his Muay Thai training to harm another person, as he continually seems to encounter people who want to fight him. Jaa is absolutely incredible. The stunts he pulls are awe-inspiring, though at times it feels as if the film is simply a backdrop for his Muay Thai skills. The only other criticism I have is the frequent use of the "let's repeat the same awesome shot of him doing something kick ass 3 times from different angles" technique, which is cool for the first couple times, but eventually gets tiresome. Yet, watching Jaa jump over cars, through barbed-wire hoops and generally being excellent makes up for the tri-peat shots. Overall it was highly amusing, and I'm somewhat interested in checking out the sequel, though we'll have to see about that one.