movrev: The Protector starring Tony Jaa

Bring on Ong-Bak 2

Well filmed and excellently coreographed, The Protector has decent story (very similar to Ong Bak) and decent acting to make it an enjoyable film. But the fight scenes will have you grabbing for the remote control to rewind and rewind again.

The story is once again of something stolen from a quiet village by a gang of criminals who have a master plan for some kind of evil in a larger city. In this case, the elephants that Tony Jaa’s family have protected for generations are stolen for their use as luck talismans. As in the first movie, Jaa has to journey to the big city to fight the henchmen of this criminal gang. His sidekick is the same actor as Ong-Bak as well.

But the choreography of the action scenes is second to none. There are many, but three stand out: the single-take shot of Jaa fighting his way up a seemingly never-ending circular staircase; Jaa vs. a Capoeria, swordsman and wrestler in a monestary, and the final fight, where Jaa takes on 50 fighters ala Bruce Lee, then finishes with fighting three huge brutes who are all twice his size.

The fight between Jaa and Lateef Crowder (Capoeria fighter and gymnast extraordinaire) is one of the best filmed and coreographed fight sequences in recent film history.