AMAZING. i saw it twice, at a small theatre with a largely asian community, and a big theatre with mostly american/city folk. the small asian community was GREAT. they all laughed at the right times, they all were like WOW at the same time, we all clapped.

the americans were lost and real quiet, and no one laughed at any of the jokes, but were all jabbering at the end about how cool it was.

and here's why it was so cool: thai stunt people could give a **** less whether they die or not. some of the stunts, you know they had to have gotten hurt. i one stunt, a taxi falls about a foot away from a person sitting in a chair in slow motion. it's like there's no safety mechanism because it's such a random, crazy country.

and that's what makes action movies from other countries so awesome. they're usually use non-internationally famous people (until they almost die enough times) and they put them in life threatening situations, or make them do stunts where they're going to break bones and **** themselves up, and NO ONE CARES. they just do it.

i hate it how here you have to have all this stuff signed and waivered, and no one wants to get hurt, or like the main actor will ***** about doing something dangerous.

jackie chan broke almost everything i his body. there's a trailer for ONG BAK that shows the bloopers, and they mess themselves up BAD. and they show the main actor's leg packed in ice between takes.

anyway, it looks great because of the crazy recklessness.

Trailers (different ones):

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/ong_bak-tlr.html

http://movies.apple.com/movies/jp/movies/gaga/media/mach_large_200409_01.mov

http://www.madman.com.au/trailers/index.jsp?trailer=quicktime/ong_bak_high.mov&title=Ong%20Bak&width=288&height=216&webChannelId=undefined

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RFranco,

Yeah, I saw that yesterday with my dad. We were the only one's in the audience ooohing and awwwing at the really cool stunts. Ong Bak was pretty badass and we got a kick out of it, but we both agreed that Tony Jaa just looks too Thai to make it in America. Now, it could've just been the part, but Jackie Chan and Jet Li are both handsome, not so native looking, Chinese men; whereas Tony Jaa looks like he belongs to a Thai village. That's not meant to be a racist remark, but that's just the feeling we both got, understanding America's prejudices. Still the movie rocked hard and I can't wait to see more.

elliott.

I saw this one last night and loved the stunts. I dunno know how they pulled some of that stuff off without breaking every bone in their bodies (falling out of the tree). The part where hes jumping the cars was amazing as well. I prefer the more choreographed jacki chan style fighting (drunken master II is a personal favorite) but Ong Bak was amazing. It was pretty funny too, which helped keep me interested during the nonaction.

Now for a gripe that’s not really directed at Ong Bak, but it falls in the category. Critics are giving this movie pretty dang good reviews, Rottentomatoes.com has it 81% fresh(44/50). If this film had been made in America it would have been panned, C+ at best. It was basically a showcase for the special effects, replaying the more awesome ones 2 or 3 times. The entire chase sequence was like an obstacle course. Story is fairly lax, Georges arm was shattered but 1 minute later he’s up fighting like gangbusters. Blood disappears and reappears, whered that guy get those syringes from?. Same thing with Iron Monkey, which was all stunt no story IMO, but it did well critically. These movies are Asian equivalents to a Michael Bay flick, but are forgiven for being all action no story b/c they are foreign. I like these movies, I like action films, I don’t mind no stories, but critics who give 1-2 stars to stuff like Van Helsing and Bad Boys II shouldnt be giving ong bak 4 stars.