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DVD BKO: Bangkok Knockout
 Run time: 106 min Rating: 5.5 Genres: Action Director: Panna Rittikrai Writers: Dojit Hongthong, Panna Rittikrai Stars: Sorapong Chatree, Kerttisak Udomnak, Krittiya Lardphanna |
| Storyline A group of “fight club” friends, whose styles vary from Muay Thai, Capoeira to Kung Fu and Tai Chi, must join forces and fight for their lives in a daring rescue of a kidnapped friend. |
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| Details: Country: Thailand Release Date: 16 December 2010 (Thailand) |
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DVD BKO: Bangkok Knockout
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A group of fighters are selected, via competition, to go to Hollywood for a project… or that's what they believe. In fact, after winning they are drugged and kidnapped, and forced to fight for their lives in a contest staged for the benefit of some extremely wealthy gamblers.
Bangkok Knockout is a terrible film by most standards – i.e. the story is dumb and the acting is terrible. It does, however, have some of the most extraordinary action scenes ever filmed. The cast are mostly stuntmen and fighters, and the film showcases a range of different styles and techniques going head to head. The level of physical virtuosity on display is amazing, and the scenes are brutal – fights are full contact, and stunts are outrageously dangerous.
For lovers of action cinema it's a must-see… everybody else should probably skip it.
The trailer promises great action and realistic fighting. Well, the final movie delivers. The fight-scenes in Bangkok Knockout blew me away. They look so real. No wait, they are real. Kicks to the face look awesome, you can even see the dust created by the foot to face impact.
Too bad some of the actors could use a foot to the face. I'm not talking about the fighters – there acting is okay – but the foreign-characters. There is one Russian guy, his lines are so horrible it's just sad… And funny.
I went to see the movie in Korat, Thailand. It had English subtitles. Not a must – foot to face actions works in all languages – but it came in handy.
You should go and watch this movie. Just for the action. And dream about the day Hollywood hires these guys to make a movie, with decent actors for the side-story.
The story is dubious although it has a twist or two. The acting is horrible from beginning to end. Yet, the action is jaw-dropping like a dropped kick that connects.
I actually saw this movie by mistake at the FantAsia Film Festival. Apparently the usher did not care to verify the name of the movie on my ticket. I think she was too busy eyeing me, or at least that is what I tell myself. So as the movie opened, I thought maybe this is a short film before the feature. When I realized I was in the wrong movie and that this one seemed to be shallow and pointless, I almost left, but my girlfriend said that we already missed the other movie's beginning and that we should tough it out with this Bangkok Knockout.
As painful as the beginning of the movie is, once the action got started, we were both glad we stayed. The scenes kept displaying some of the most stunning stunts and choreography in the industry. Then, there is a bit of comedy, some good editing, hot girls who can do a few moves too and a fitting ending. By that time, we were cheering with the enthused FantAsia crowd and easily put the poor plot and bad acting in the back of our mind.
There are some amazing scenes with cage fighting, blunt or sharp weapons, car, spectacular falls, masked assailants, Terminator-style superhuman, martial arts mastery and then… just when you thought you had seen it all, they bring the fight to the real world and bring in guns, motorcycles, trucks for the grand finale.
This is the martial arts Matrix in a warehouse with no story. Wachowski brothers, watch out. Less guns, more skills, guts and glory.
Before, i rarely watch Thai Movies, but since Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong, i became interested in some. Tony Jaa is a man of a new way of martial art in movies for me. Different than American typical fighting movies, or even Asian Kung Fu Movies, the Thai 'modern' martial art movies are fresher on the eyes.
Bangkok Knockout is surely a promising martial art movie if you watched the trailer. The moves and the arts are amazing for me. But…after I watch the whole movie (no skipping or fast-forwarding) I was kinda disappointed. The idea of the story is not so bad, but it's brought kinda poorly. Well, maybe it's intended just for domestic (not international), so there might only be limited budget on it.
The actors, i think, are some martial artists, with little to no acting experience, since it's not an easy task to find people which experts on both. Even the main star is not good at acting, and also not so good looking (sometimes I think the main star doesn't have to be handsome, but has to bee good looking, at least for the good-view for the audience). Luckily, there are two cute and pretty awesome girls. They are good-looking and can do some moves.
Okay, at first, the flow of the movie is kinda slow n little bit boring, there're almost no fighting or action scene, just some drama. But after, maybe about thirty minutes, the fighting begins. Since then, the fighting almost never stop till the end. And those fighting scenes are GREAT because of the choreography and also the skill of the actors performing jumping, kicking, punching, somersaulting, acrobats stunts and moves, and also in a matrix-bullet time-style. Sometimes, after one or two rounds of fighting, there's some stories we need to know about the background of some event etc, kinda lame for me because the foreign actors are also not good at acting, and even bad at speaking English. Btw, some scenes sometimes don't make sense, just enjoy it.
So, if you want to watch fighting a lot, with some new styles and moves and also in slow-mo, this is the right movie. But don't (ever) expect a good story and good acting.
Just my stupid review…. ^^