In "Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior," the head of the Ong-Bak statue is stolen from a village, and Ting (Tony Jaa) travels to Bangkok to retrieve the lost head, which helps the village prosper. In order to locate the gangsters who stole the artifact, Ting must infiltrate a Muay Thai fight club and bust some skulls to save his village from drought.
The premise seems enough to ensure 90 minutes of action, but as viewers start to sit through "Ong-Bak," they get bored. Really bored. The plot is full of holes. Ting has the address of the lowlife scumbag who stole the head of the Ong-Bak, but for some reason he doesn't use it to find him. How hard is it to find an address in Bangkok?
Also, writer/director Prachya Pinkaew demands plenty of unnecessary scenes involving sub-characters like George and Muaylek and their anything-but-entertaining escapades cheating people out of money and getting into trouble, as well as the mob boss who had an even more unnecessary tracheotomy that forces him to speak through a voice box.
But, martial arts fans - and anyone looking for an ass-kicking good time - fear not. For "Ong-Bak" stars a man named Tony Jaa, a name you are sure to hear again in the near future. Jaa is like Noah, saving viewers from drowning in a bad movie.
About 30 minutes into "Ong-Bak," Jaa enters the fight club, and from then on, there's no stopping the brilliant action sequences. Jaa's moves are unlike anything American audiences are used to. After his brutal battles in the Bangkok fight club - where he's pummeled with refrigerators and thrown through tables and windows - the audience might even be chanting "E-C-Dubya, E-C-Dubya," out of respect for Extreme Championship Wrestling.
Oh, and it doesn't stop there. This one-man show proceeds to continually dazzle you with each stunt. Every awesomely gratuitous explosion and each crazy kick or amazing jump is shown multiple times and from different angles throughout the film. This may sound tedious, but it's not. You just can't get enough Jaa. It's a magnificent return to form for martial arts that has been overrun with gratuitous use of special effects.
By the end of "Ong-Bak," you forget the boring first third of the film and forgive the plot holes. Who cares if the village overcame that drought? Bet that the audience will head straight back to the theater to catch the next showing, just to see Jaa jump out of that burning building with his legs on fire to kick that dude off the motorcycle again.
