RATING: 2/5
When comes to action movie made in Thailand, what you'll get is a bone-crunching martial arts that will knocked your senses out. Not surprisingly, this is what you'll get in Panna Rittikrai’s BKO: BANGKOK KNOCKOUT. Panna Rittikrai is of course the action guru and co-director of Tony Jaa's ONG BAK 2 (2008) and is first and foremost a strictly martial art extravaganza. Anything beyond that -- namely plot and characters -- are totally out of the question. Take your pick.
Still with me? As mentioned earlier, the plot is hardly matters here. Written by Panna Rittikrai, Doojit Hongthong and Jonathan Siminoe, the movie is basically a minimalist version of Arnold Schwarzenegger's THE RUNNING MAN-like storytelling structure minus the futuristic setting. During an audition to recruit Thai stuntmen for a Hollywood production, the members of the Fight Club defeat their rival team in the trial. After a night of celebration, they find themselves awaken in an empty industrial warehouse where they are subsequently attacked by a group of masked fighters. Apparently they are the subjects of a gambling game masterminded by the evil Mr. Snead (Speedy Arnold -- no kidding, that is his name) for his rich foreign clients witnessing all the fights through live broadcasts. Now the members of the Fight Club have no choice but to fight their ways out in the name of survival.
Characters are cardboard cutouts, with Speedy Arnold's gleefully portrayed villain is clearly the one you often found in ultra-cheesy B-grade production.
So what's left here are a series of amazing stuntwork and of course, spectacular martial art set-pieces that will keep action fans on the edge of their seat. All the fight scenes are insanely choreographed, cranked up to the eleven with neat and fluid editing. They are simply hyperkinetic enough to be admired at, as you will see how these bunch of death-defying fighters incorporated various martial art styles which includes Muay Thai, Capoeira, Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do and many more. Some are even imaginative enough, including a fight scene underneath the moving container truck (no kidding -- you'll have to watch it to believe what I say here).
For action fans (especially those who love to watch something out of Thailand), BKO: BANGKOK KNOCKOUT is a must-see. The rest of us can dismissed this as a huge, missed opportunity.