MovieChat Forums > Ong-Bak (2005) Discussion > OVER_RATED (DETAILS INSIDE)

OVER_RATED (DETAILS INSIDE)

posted 19 years ago by t-owens81
258 replies | jump to latest

First I am going to start this off by saying that I am an active competitor and 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and have studied enough to consider myself fairly knowledgeable in the feild of Martial Arts.

This movie is for one, over-rated. Like a psoter in another thread stated, Tony Jaa has no charisma. If you see Jackie Chan or Jet Li fight, they tell a story. They have physcology (sp?) and presence, Jaa has none of that. He does his moves which are ncie indeed, but get repetitive and boring.

On the back of the DVD case this takes a cheap shot on Jackie Chan, I know it is for promototional purposes but please. Jackie Chan and Jet Li are gods of the Martial Arts movie world, and have the experience and charisma to execute well in a film like this. The chase scene was good and Jaa showed amazing agility but hell the barrel scene in SHanghia Knights leaves that in the dust, and that is saying something. Like earlier stated, Li and Chan have physcology, they can make it comedic or show fear etc.

Jaa is skilled at Muy Tae, but his ksills dont overlap into this area. His style is more for real life fighting, not demonstration and coordinated fighting. Three reasons why the fight scenes weren't good...

1)Crappy Partners.
All of the people Jaa fought were bad. Each guy in the bar was horrifically slow and showed no skill, the main henchmen was good but not something better than on a weekly Texas Walker show.

2) Repetition.
Ok we know Jaa can jump and knee someone in the face, or elbow them in head. Ok it is good the first time, but c'mon. He does the same moves over and over and over, showing no diversity in his style. You never see him adapt to knew opponents, he jsut sticks to his basic moves and does them.

3) No storytelling.
They were just fights... that is it.

I will go to admit Jaa has some skill. He can do flips and spin kicks like nothing but he needs to do that rather than his repitive moves. Li and Chan are so great because of there fast hand to hand combat. Do we see any of that? NO.
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Overall not a bad movie, but shouldn't be regarded as something special.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] Brother_h 17 years ago

well he is basing his movies on real life self defense. and not real life showing off. if you hesitate infront of a bad ass dude. then your better off dead. jackie chan and jet li are gods, only because they have had 20 years of experience. in their first movies they were no good. but now 20 years on they are the greatest show fighters since bruce lee. actually bruce lee is like jackie chan and tony jaa combind because lee got into real fights during his fake ones.

jaa will get good dont worry. and his moves are awsome, real life defense and not for your fake enjoyment. funny thing and dont take this personel, but alot of the people who think chuck norris and steven seagal can beat up any asian dudes, then i guess that is you because they dont do *beep* they got no moves at all.

[–] karlkanner 17 years ago

also , for the creator of this post, who has clearly been proven to be an idiot by every single other post here, don't complain that tony is repetetive wiht his moves. its called MUY THAI/BORAN and it doesnt use as many "traditional punches", because they AREN'T AS POWERFUL AS KNEES OR ELBOWs, KTHX. lastly, the only repetetive thing in the movie is how hes shown from 48 different angles doing each stunt, which was ok for me but some of my friends got annoyed at it. so, over-rated? your brain capacity was over-rated by your teachers in school when they thought you could learn how to not be an idiot.

[–] stuart-davies 16 years ago

Jaa is a very athletic Martial Artist and what he does, he does well. It is not however for "real life self defense". If you want to see a form of self defense that is nearer the "true form" of any martial art, watch any of the Bourne films. Most real fights (not the well crafted and choreographed ones designed for films) take place at conversation distance which makes hands, elbows and knees the ideally placed weapons.
In all probability there will not be available space to perform the dramatic, spins and leaps that are shown in Martial Art films.

In general the xxx martial art is better than yyy martial art arguments, are (in my opinion) totally fallacious. Generally (irrespective of style) the sport version of the martial art is taught, and, while being good a cardio-vascular work out has often little or nothing to do with self defense or self protection. There are many Kwon / Dojo / schools out there that will teach you this - the trouble is that they tend not to advertise and they most definitely don't promise a black belt in two years.

MMA / BJJ are only showing what is in the true fighting system - look carefully at the patterns performed and you will see how effective all systems are - even Tai Chi is vicious fighting system - you only need to look.

[–] ShadowHades 16 years ago

A movie with real life fighting are way better then the whole matrix kind of martial arts where two guys block half the moves and dodge them... Its nice to watch a real movie.

1)Crappy partners?
I guess where your from all bar room brawlers are black belts?The people in the bar are just regular joes who think they can fight.

2)Repetition...
Adapt to knew opponents? he fights some bar room brawlers AND martial artist and people with guns/knives... also fights them thugs trying to beat on him with sticks while he does flips on a table? WHAT THE *beep* MOVIE ARE YOU WATCHING?

3)No storytelling?
Well in america someone stealing a religious statue may mean nothing to us... but to deeply religious people who go their entire life serving him?Your points are just little things that someone looking for the bad instead of enjoying a movie.

And he has "some" skill? LOL in a real fight he would dominate Jet Li because Muay Thai is way more lethal and meant for the world of fighting.

I understand that you are a man who knows how to get things

[–] roland_ratty 16 years ago

i knnow nothing about martial arts and even if i did i wouldn't think that it made my opinion about a movie any more valid than anybody else's

[–] ShadowHades 16 years ago

When you attack his martial art skill it does

I understand that you are a man who knows how to get things

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] SaintDragoN 16 years ago

lol Muy Thai - LoL!!!!!!!
I hate to say this but im a Thai Boxer, and I can say this, TKD is a sport dude!! U cant really defense urself in most street fights!
So nooo I DONT think that u know much about martial arts at all mate.
Muay Thai has a very solid basics, thats why in fighting u dont really have to adapt much, example, Jacky kicking a can of coke to KO people. We just beat the *beep* out of em man

sooo poster - friendly advice, go do ur homework b4 posting anything that will owned urself man

SaintDragoN^

[–] stuntmankup 16 years ago

Hey Karate kid...If you didn't know Jackie Chan knows now form of martial arts at all...He said so himself...And Tony Jaa didn't have a "choreographer" or "stunt double" he did everything which is impressive in itself, to see someone besides Chow Yun Fat, Jet Li, or Jackie Chan...Also Li and Chan said they were not going to do American Movies anymore because they weren't as good as communist chinas...

[–] stanleygoodspeed99 16 years ago

I have never seen completely unassisted feats of agility like those that are in this movie. I like Jackie Chan, but I have never seen him do the splits and slide under a car. I have never seen him jump over a car either. I have also never seen him perform a double back flip or perform a move where he runs over the shoulders of 3 people. That was ridiculous. Who cares about fast hand to hand combat when you have agility like this. Go back to your franchised gym and do your taekwondo-cersice class. just dont claim you have a 3rd degree black belt, we all know you only need to do taekwondo for a year before you can get that far.

"I am Jack's cold sweat."

[–] per-69 16 years ago

I gave this a 3 star rating. The only thing worse than a B-movie is a Thai B-movie! The only reason it got a 3 was because it was so lame that it was actually amusing at times. For the life of me I dont understand why this is rated so high, but I guess a lot of people where involved in making it :/

It seems to me like most IMDB users have a code that says "If it is made in Asia, it MUST be good", because there are so many overrated asian movies.

[–] karateguy_19 16 years ago

why is this in capitals? idiot?? what you wrote was *beep*