Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior
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Above-average martial arts action movie set in Thailand about a local scrapper (Tony Jaa) -- trained in an ancient fighting system -- who volunteers to retrieve a sacred Buddha statue revered by the locals which was stolen from the village temple by a ruthless crime boss (Sukhaaw Phongwilai) looking to sell it on the black market. Director Prachya Pinkaew dresses up the film's generic chop-socky premise with hyperkinetic fight sequences -- as balletic as they are brutal and all done without special effects -- which show off the athleticism of Jaa, who combines the acrobatic daredeviling of Jackie Chan and the lethal limbs of Bruce Lee. Much strong action violence, drug content, an aborted sexual encounter, fleeting rear nudity and sporadic rough and crude language. L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. (R) 2005
Full Review
Fists and feet of fury abound in "Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior" (Magnolia), a martial-arts action movie set in Thailand about a local scrapper (Tony Jaa) -- trained in an ancient fighting system -- who volunteers to retrieve a sacred Buddha statue revered by the locals which was stolen from the village temple by a ruthless crime boss (Sukhaaw Phongwilai) looking to sell it on the black market.
Director Prachya Pinkaew dresses up the film's generic chop-socky premise with hyperkinetic fight sequences -- as balletic as they are brutal and all done without special effects -- which show off the athleticism of Jaa, who combines the acrobatic daredeviling of Jackie Chan and the lethal limbs of Bruce Lee.
The film contains much strong action violence, drug content, an aborted sexual encounter, fleeting rear nudity and sporadic rough and crude language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted.
Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic
merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating,
the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief
synopsis of the movie.
The classifications are as follows:
- A-I -- general patronage;
- A-II -- adults and adolescents;
- A-III -- adults;
- A-IV**
- L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
- O -- morally offensive.
** Discontinued classification. All archived movies that were originally in the A-IV category are now classified as L.