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by Willie Waffle

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Ong-Bak

Magnolia Pictures is pushing Tony Jaa as the next great martial arts movie hero, but don't believe this is misplaced hyperbole used to con you into seeing a bad movie (yes, I was burned by Alone in the Dark's commercials as well, but we must move on and learn to trust again). Jaa lives up to the hype (unlike Tara Reid's "ample talents"). He's the next Jackie Chan, and you'll believe it if you take a chance on Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior.

In a small Thai village, the people are preparing for a grand and rare celebration, when tragedy strikes. The head of the Ong-Bak statue has been stolen in the middle of the night by some city thugs with ties to a major crime lord, which puts the fate of the village in great peril if they cannot get it back in time for a rare, once-every-24-years ceremony (about as often as I get a date these days). A local warrior, Ting (Tony Jaa), is the only man who has the ability, strength and dedication to take on the task, so the entire village turns over their meager valuables to fund his journey to return the head and save the village.

Can Ting save the day?

While Ong-Bak's story is basic, the dialogue is less than stellar, and the film becomes unnecessarily campy in many scenes, Jaa is an amazing hero with fantastic skills who single-handedly commands your attention and makes it worth the price of admission. At one point during the movie, Ting is chased through the city, forced to hurdle cars, slip through the tightest of openings, scale walls and battle a dozen or more thugs, and this is the moment when a star is born. Jaa blew me away with highly complicated, physically tasking and outright dangerous moves. Whether he is involved in traditional hand-to-hand combat with an adversary, or defying gravity in breathtaking stunts, Jaa shows why he will be a huge star. If only everyone else in the movie was as good as he.

Ong-Bak is a hard film to watch because writer/director Prachya Pinkaew and his crew fail to properly light most of the scenes. My friend, and fellow critic Bill Henry (dcmovieguys.com), suggested this is done to distract us from noticing the lack of extras, which leads to the same actors appearing in multiple scenes playing different characters. I have some sympathy for that, but you can find any yahoo on the street to stand in as "guy who gets his butt kicked." I'll do it if you have a decent buffet, and I know how to fall down quickly after taking a punch. Anyway, the movie is horribly lit in other moments as well, so some attention to basic filmmaking is lacking. Finally, Pinkaew often harkens back to 70's-style campiness like what you might have seen on the late late late show back in the day, but overdoes it and doesn't make it consistent enough to be 100% on purpose and for effect.

Ong-Bak is not a great movie, but Jaa could be a great action hero. Check him out for yourself, and you won't be sorry.

2 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4)

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