ong bak [Liam]

ok so today i saw blade trinity, which i dare say was one of the worst action movies i've ever seen. it was so stupid that i seriously almost left the theatre. there's this silly emphasis on flossy CG and poorly choreographed amateurs now that has been hanging around stinking up the place ever since the wachowski brothers dropped their steaming heap of matrix on the planet, and blade: trinity is an example of the horrible, derivative aftermath that comes from using that as your starting point. it's as if in order to properly mimic the modern xXx / matrix formula they had to downplay the excellent fight choreography that wesley snipes pulled off in the original in favor of giving jessica biel's character a self-assembling robotic laser bow (no lie). beyond this, the movie as a whole is just shoddily directed in a way that honestly suggests people in hollywood really don't respect their audience very much.
but i digress... that's not what i came here to talk about.

i just stumbled across a trailer for something that looks exactly what i need in my action diet. it's a thai flick called Ong Bak, featuring future breakout Tony Jaa as some dude who kicks people in the face.

check this teaser out for reference and i'll continue

imagine a dude who has the crazy "no wires / no special effects" moves of jackie chan without the comic softness that has found its way in after decades of stardom (actually it's said he could be better). someone who will look like he's kicking ass on $0 of budget because he is in fact quite physically capable of kicking ass. that's what i'm talkin bout blogga! (ok it's late)that's what action as a genre needs.

apparently even outside the second ong bak trailer through which i was introduced to all this earlier in the week (TRAILER 2 - christ watch him go under that truck, or kick that guy's legs out from under him) people seem to agree that he is in fact on his way to being the next bruce-level action star. i already hope they're right. sorry keanu.

And just so you know I'm not endorsing out of my ass (this is from the toronto star):

French director Luc Besson has already put the stamp of approval on Ong-Bak by purchasing the world-wide rights for the film. Besson is currently producing the film's sequel, starring Jaa, in Thailand, but rumour has it he'll attend the midnight madness screening in Toronto.

and here's a couple brief excerpts from what Aint' it Cool News had to say:

Ong-Bak kicks the living shit out of every martial arts movie made in the last ten years. Every. Single. One. This thing makes Iron Monkey look like god-damned Gymkata. Fuck! A coherent review is impossible right now. I'll try, but it's probably just going to devolve into "And then he... with the... and then the guy... holy shit! With his legs on fucking fire!!!"

...

Let me say that again, in case you thought I was off my head or exaggerating or something you know the one, all the legends have it. That sequence in the club where Ting wipes the floor with the hand-picked champs, finishing off with the punk-wannabe bad-ass who even makes the ring announcer recoil in fear and horror when he steps up... or the blow that finally takes out Zmed... this guy has it. HE HAS IT.

in other words, BOOOOOOM.
btw if anybody knows a good site / wants to chip in on the shipping for an outside-the-US copy, lemme know b/c i'm all about that