07-14-2006, 02:45 PM
A long time ago, in a forum far, far away, ED posted a thread titled "let's Thai one on!" It was right after yours truly, DM showed Ong Bak at a DOOM gathering. The thread refered to Born to Fight, an earlier film of Panna Rittikrai, the stunt choreographer behind Tony Jaa in OB and Tom Yum Goong. BtF was my 3rd Baa Ram Ewe film and I'm still no closer to solving the riddle of the Babe reference. Tony Jaa is not in this film, but who cares? After seeing it, it's not about Jaa. It's about Rittikrai.
There's some spoilers in this review, but nothing major, and for kung fu film veterans like all of us, this isn't the kind of film that's about plot twists. It's about action.
BtF begins with an awesome hardcore-stunt-ridden action sequence. Then there's a little break for about 15 minutes for character development and such - a good time to make sure you have a full beer by your side and you've emptied the previous beers from your bladder. Then the rest of the film is the final fight - a good solid hour of action and ultraviolence. Definite DOOM material. I can even hear LB, I mean BP, chuckling at the ultravi. Even that short 15-min interlude character develop pays off in the end, in it's own campy way. It's like Woo's Bullet in the Head meets Ong Bak, Shaolin Soccer and Gymkata. You read that right - Gymkata. Gymnastics fu. Soccer ball fu. Elbow-to-the-skull muay thai fu. Top-notch-in-your-handle gun fu. Bone-crunching hardcore stunt fu. Kid fu. Cripple fu. Nuclear device fu. Extended one-shot combat & gun play fu. Cat fight fu. Brutal killings of innocent people fu. BtF's got it all. There are even stunt outtakes in the credits. Of the three Baa Ram Ewe films I've seen, I still lean toward OB the most, but probably just because I saw it first. TYG had too much plot or something - it just didn't come together for me even though the action was superb. I really enjoyed BtF because it was unpretentious - it had a simple set up and got you right into the action, and then jsut ran with it. Actually, I just changed my mind. I like BtF best. Good clean bloody fun.
There's some spoilers in this review, but nothing major, and for kung fu film veterans like all of us, this isn't the kind of film that's about plot twists. It's about action.
BtF begins with an awesome hardcore-stunt-ridden action sequence. Then there's a little break for about 15 minutes for character development and such - a good time to make sure you have a full beer by your side and you've emptied the previous beers from your bladder. Then the rest of the film is the final fight - a good solid hour of action and ultraviolence. Definite DOOM material. I can even hear LB, I mean BP, chuckling at the ultravi. Even that short 15-min interlude character develop pays off in the end, in it's own campy way. It's like Woo's Bullet in the Head meets Ong Bak, Shaolin Soccer and Gymkata. You read that right - Gymkata. Gymnastics fu. Soccer ball fu. Elbow-to-the-skull muay thai fu. Top-notch-in-your-handle gun fu. Bone-crunching hardcore stunt fu. Kid fu. Cripple fu. Nuclear device fu. Extended one-shot combat & gun play fu. Cat fight fu. Brutal killings of innocent people fu. BtF's got it all. There are even stunt outtakes in the credits. Of the three Baa Ram Ewe films I've seen, I still lean toward OB the most, but probably just because I saw it first. TYG had too much plot or something - it just didn't come together for me even though the action was superb. I really enjoyed BtF because it was unpretentious - it had a simple set up and got you right into the action, and then jsut ran with it. Actually, I just changed my mind. I like BtF best. Good clean bloody fun.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse