Bangkok Revenge (2011)

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Other people said enough about the language issues, silly story and bad acting. As a fan of good martial arts action those parts are not thaat essential, so let's talk about the action.It's not the pinnacle of martial arts movies but, taking into account how high the bar has been set by Ong Bak and The Raid: Redemption, you can still call it pretty damn good. For the most part there is no shaky cam. When shaky cam is used it's not for making the action look faster and harder but rather as stylistic means for the scene. Every fight scene is different. The style of choreography varies a bit, the stage is never the same (from locations with almost no room to fight to completely open street) and also the directing is never completely the same. For some scenes the latter works, for some it does not so well. But you definitely won't get bored.With a bit of luck the dry comments from the main character might even hit your humor. The emotionless way he delivers a couple of lines made me giggle hard a few times :).

"Rebirth" (aka "Bangkok Revenge") is a rather mindless and pointless action movie - with heavy emphasis on action.The story in the movie is about a boy whose father is killed and the boy himself is shot in the head. But miraculously he survives, and loses the ability to feel anything. Growing up, he learns martial arts (of course, what else should he do?) and he ends up having to fight for the truth of what happened on that fateful day.Right, the story here is as hollow and simplistic as it gets, to the point where it is just embarrassing, and I suppose director Jean-Marc Minéo had to put in something that resembled a storyline to justify making this prolonged fighting sequence into an actual movie.The action sequences and fighting sequences, however, are plenty and abundant, and the movie is basically just one long fight, as no matter where Manit goes he has to fight someone. It is just a bit too idiotic, but from an action-viewpoint, then the movie does deliver. However, there is nothing new or breathtaking here, that haven't already been seen in other martial arts movies, such as "Ong Bak" or "The Raid: Redemption". But still, if you enjoy fighting and martial arts, there is lots of it here in this movie.As for taking place in Thailand, I just don't understand why a young Thai boy would grow up to speak that kind of British English, and used only very little Thai. It was just stupid and made absolutely no sense. If anything, it just took away the illusion that the audience were to believe that Jon Foo had to pass for a Thai.In conclusion, then "Rebirth" is a story fully devoid of plot and coherency, and is basically just one fight after another from start to end. The movie lets you turn off your brain and just go into autopilot. "Rebirth" offers nothing challenging from the audience, and as hard as it tried, then even the constant fighting couldn't keep up the entertainment or enjoyment of the movie, and essentially ended up becoming too much to bear witness to.If you enjoy Asian martial arts movies, your money is better spent elsewhere. The 3 out of 10 rating I am giving the movie is solely because of the action and fighting - the rest of the movie was just pointless and irrelevant.

Alright, so it wasn't a triple-a production movie. Throughout the movie I loved the filmography, story, and character development. I'm all about obscure netflix foreign movies, and this was a very entertaining, excellent ending movie.While many give it low ratings, from someone who only watches foreign movies on netflix, it was a blast to watch. Great story, while very typical, but it progressed through the movie and character developments where obviously seen, and felt. The ending was one of the best foreign movie endings iv'e seen, obviously minus the classics, but it is well deserving above a 4.5. I'd say an 8/10 is an adequate rating for this movie.Great action scenes, the main actor obviously has tremendous martial arts skills. Reminded me of a tony jaa or donnie yen martial arts, which are great to watch

First off, let me state that I paid honest cash for this. So I can trash it as much as I want.Basic plot here: an honest cop and his wife and kid are shot up by masked killers. The boy survives a bullet to the dome, and is taken to a village (for his safety - and to learn bone-crushing martial arts). The bullet lodged in the back of his skull is apparently quite severe: we are told he'll "never be like others", and is expected to grow up a mute idiot....so he learns (American) English! Decent syntax and pronunciation - for a dorm-grade bro-cabulary. Though he understands Thai, and even asks for directions in it at one point, he just seems to prefer English. When asked, he always says (in crisp English), "you'll never believe me if I told you." Most of the others in this film speak English as well, so the more challenged audiences won't have to worry about all that unnecessary reading at this "foreign film"."Bah! Enough about linguism! How are the fights?!" you say, glowering. After all, the guy does learn the ancient arts of expert skull-bashing (in a weirdly sparse "temple training" montage), and quickly gets himself involved in the silly vengeance/gangs/corrupt police plot that takes up most of the film. Oh, and the guy is supposed to be autistic, sort of - whatever "no feelings and no pain" meant as a stage direction to Jon Foo.The fights - they aight. It's not groundbreaking stuff, and we've seen most of it in Merantau, The Raid: Redemption, and all the Tony Jaa flicks. Fighting sequences actually make up a good portion of the film, but they were lacking that extra oomph for the most part, and the silly blonde girl along with the rest of the terrible actors do a great job of distracting you from what could have been a somewhat enjoyable beat-em- up flick. The absurdly campish girl-gang belonged in The Last Dragon way more than they did here - the token tranny was horridly mannish and so unlike all the Thai ladyboys I've seen, I would have felt personally insulted were I of Thai origin. There's also a French guy, who chainsmoked a lot and acted like we were all supposed to recognize him or something.There was one noteworthy scene where the main dude is tightly surrounded by boxers and they all go to town beating on him. The camera, from inside the mêlée, captures in slow motion the hero making slight dodges, thereby causing all the boxers to miss and hit one other instead. Quite original!So 4/10, for the abundance of fighting, and for the fact that it was so bad it transcended that wall where excruciating becomes hilarious; some directorial decisions almost smelled of subtle barbs at Americans and the fact that the folks responsible had to cater to a foreign culture that (unfortunately) makes a large portion of the intended audience. I guess you're not supposed to 'read' martial arts flicks that deeply, though.