Ong Bak 2: The Beginning/องค์บาก 2 (2008) - Another energetic Thai revenge dish from Jaa and Co.

♥♥♥

 

+ Best Martial Arts Movie of the Year + Best Revenge Movie of the Year + Best Thai Movie of the Year 

 

Star Tony Jaa is perched incredibly upon the tusks and head of an elephant on this rad poster for Ton Jaa and Panna Rittikra's Ong Bak 2: The Beginning

Back in 15th century Thailand, a young man is intent on avenging his father's untimely death.

 

Ong Bak 2: The Beginning is written by Ek Iemchuen (Skin Trade (2014)) and Nontakorn Taweesuk (The Bodyguard (2004)), with debuting co-writer/co-producer/co-director/star Tony Jaa (Singh Siam (1992, star)) and co-writer/co-producer/co-director Panna Rittikrai (2 Nuk Soo Poo Ying Yai (1986)) contributing story elements. It is the sequel to Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (2003).

It is a visually resplendent, flashy follow-up with handsome scenes with exotic animals and protracted fight scenes. They are impressive, entertaining, - and a bit comical, as they can also seem like one long PR boost for the ever-present Jaa. There's also a very good-looking scene of traditional Thai dance.

The story plays second fiddle and is served with muddled precision in Ong Bak 2: The Beginning.

 

Related post:

 

Tony Jaa, star; Panna Rittikrai story contribution:  2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior/องค์บาก (2003) - The acrobatic martial arts breakthrough

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 8 mil. $

Box office: 8.9 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.11 times its cost)

[Ong Bak 2: The Beginning was released 4 December (Thailand) and runs 98 minutes. Mystery and scandal enshrouded the production of the film, the first Jaa was set to direct himself: Jaa was said to have disappeared from the set for 2 months, creating a major contract conflict with enormous damages as result; and Rittikrai was apparently involved to help finish the film, which has a budget that is more than 7 times the size of the original Ong-Bak. The film opened #62 to a 26k $ first weekend in 10 theaters in North America, where it expanded to 12 theaters the next week but failed to gain a higher rank, grossing 102k $ (1.1 % of the total gross). The biggest markets were Thailand with 2.9 mil. $ (32.6 % of the total gross), France with 2.1 mil. $ (23.6 %) and Spain with 1 mil. $ (11.2 %). Jaa and Rittikrai returned with Ong-Bak 3 (2010), which was also Jaa's next film as a star. Ong Bak 2: The Beginning is rotten at 49 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ong Bak 2: The Beginning?

Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior/องค์บาก (2003) - The acrobatic martial arts breakthrough

♥♥♥

 

+ Best $ Return of the Year: 18.3 times its cost + Best Martial Arts Movie of the Year + Best Thai Movie of the Year

 

Star Tony Jaa's muscular back in warm, earthy tones makes up this poster for Prachya Pinkaew's Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior

When a Thai village have the head of their protective Ong-Bak Buddha statue stolen, a young, virile man gets chosen to head out on the dangerous journey to the big city (Bangkok) to repossess the holy artifact.

 

Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior is written by Suphachai Sittiaumponpan (Thai Theeb (2006)), with Panna Rittikrai (Black Goblins (1990)) and co-writer/co-producer/director Prachya Pinkaew (Rawng tah laep plaep (1992)) contributing story elements.

Young Ting (Tony Jaa (Monster Hunter (2020))), the brave young man in question, beats up and suffers beatings from a fantastic amount of people, and the fighting scenes take up most of the film's running time. And here are very cool and acrobatic choreography to admire.

Aside from this significant quality, Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior is overlong and, outside of its action, amateurish.

 

Related post:

 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

 

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 1.1 mil. $

Box office: 20.2 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 18.3 times its cost)

[Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior premiered 21 January (Bangkok International Film Festival) and runs 108-105 minutes (Thai version/international version). Shooting took place in Thailand, including in Bangkok. The film opened #17 to a 1.3 mil. $ first weekend in 387 theaters in North America, its 2nd biggest market, where it grossed 4.5 mil. $ (22.3 of the total gross). The biggest market was France with 6.4 mil. $ (31.7 %), and 3rd biggest was Thailand with 2.5 mil. $ (12.4 %). The success resulted in 2 sequels; Ong-Bak 2 (2008) and Ong-Bak 3 (2010), with Jaa and Pinkaew returning. Pinkaew first returned with The Protector/Tom yum goong (2005), which was also Jaa's next movie. Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior?

Teddy Bear/10 Timer til Paradis (2012) - Matthiesen's little gem of intercontinental romance

♥♥♥♥

 

The original Danish poster for Mads Matthiesen's Teddy Bear has a lovely photo from a beach in Thailand

 

Lonely bodybuilder Dennis of age 35 leaves his mother, whom he lives with in Rødovre, Denmark, to go on a trip by himself to Thailand to find himself a girlfriend.

Kim Kold (Fast & Furious 6 (2013)) is deeply sympathetic as Dennis, and Elsebeth Steentoft (Klown/Klovn: The Movie (2010)) and Lamaiporn Sangmanee Hougaard as his mother and new-found love are also very good.

Teddy Bear is a finely observed, underplayed, pleasant film. Its more poetic and better original title translates to '10 hours till paradise'. The depiction of the tyrannical mother opposite the good Dennis is a bit one-sided but it doesn't hurt the film much overall. It is written by Martin Zandvliet (The Model (2016)) and co-writer-director Mads Matthiesen (The Model) as his auspicious feature debut, based on his short Dennis (2007), also starring Kold as Dennis.

Matthiesen and Kold give an interview about the film at Sundance here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Unknown (but likely a huge flop)

[Teddy Bear premiered January 22 (Sundance) and runs 93 minutes. It was filmed in Denmark and Thailand. The film was released for 3 weeks in North America, where it topped at #76 in 2 theaters and grossed 16k $. Its only other publicized gross is in Poland, where it made 5k $. In its native Denmark, it sold 27,077 tickets, equal to approximately 270k $. These numbers together make it likely that the film should count as a huge flop theatrically at least. The film won the World Cinema - Drama directing award at Sundance. Teddy Bear is fresh at 93 % with a 7.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Teddy Bear?

The Hangover Part II (2011) - Phillips & Co. follow their sensational comedy hit with a disappointing sequel

♥♥♥

+ Most Undeserved Hit Movie of the Year

One of the persuasive posters that lured audiences by the thousands to Todd Phillips' The Hangover Part II

This time around, 'the wolf pack' are in Thailand, and at least I respect that the film does absolutely nothing to romanticize Bangkok.

Todd Phillips' (Starsky & Hutch (2004)) inevitable follow-up to his run-away comedy hit The Hangover (2009) is a schematic, thin rehash just barely worth the generous three stars it gets here.
Zach Galifianakis (Due Date (2010)) is the funniest character, and in good company the movie is just feasible, but ... there's many buts in the case of Hangover 2:
- Where was the much publicized Liam Neeson (Schindler's List (1993)) cameo? (The answer: On the cutting room floor, replaced by Nick Cassavetes (Face/Off (1997)) in a reshot version of the scene.)
- Why weren't there more funny comedians to lift the comedic level?
- Why did literally nothing new happen?
The action elements of Part II, which the first film didn't really have, only contribute in making the plot even more implausible. Add to this that Ken Jeong's (The DUFF (2015)) character Mr. Chow isn't fun anymore, and an offensive scene with violent monks, (other people will undoubtedly find other scenes from the film offensive.) - The Hangover Part II opened on Memorial Day, but that doesn't make it a memorable film by any standards.
It is co-written by Phillips, Craig Mazin (Scary Movie 3 (2003)) and Scot Armstrong (Semi-Pro (2008)), based on the characters created by Jon Lucas (21 & Over (2013)) and Scott Moore (Flypaper (2011)).
Phillips followed the film up with The Hangover Part III (2013), which finished the Hangover trilogy, and he is now working on a war-themed comedy titled Arms and the Dudes (2016).

Related posts:
 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
 

Ken Jeong looks funny here, but he isn't very funny in Todd Phillips' The Hangover Part II

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 80 mil. $
Box office: 586.8 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The movie, which started development two months before the first film was even released, opened to a whopping 86 mil. $ first weekend in North America and similarly red-hot reception globally. Audiences worldwide braved bad reviews and made the film the highest-grossing R-rated movie made to date: It made 254.4 mil. $ in North America (43 % of the total gross).]

What do you think of The Hangover Part II?
And the other two films in the trilogy?
And Phillips' other films?

Beautiful Boxer/บิวตี้ฟูล บ๊อกเซอร์ (2004) or, The Struggles of Nong Toom

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Biopic of the Year + Best LGBT Movie of the Year + Best Sports Movie of the Year + Best Thai Movie of the Year 

Asanee Suwan applies hand bandages on the poster for Ekachai Uekrongtham's Beautiful Boxer

QUICK REVIEW:

The story of Nong Toom, a transsexual boy, who experiences a lot of hardship in life and sees an opening to achieve his goal, a sex change operation, through Muay Thai [Thai boxing]! - Much more fighting awaits.
Beautiful Boxer is a fantastic film based on a fantastic true story. It is inspiring and enlightening, both about life as a transsexual and about Thailand. Made with great empathy and beautifully carried out in good-looking pictures and brilliant acting, particularly by Asanee Suwan (The Coffin (2008)) in the lead. He plays the rich, complex character, the exciting development and the many good fighting scenes to a T.
Only the fierce lingering on the past and its ghosts is perhaps a little bit overdone in the film, where I instead was curious about other things, Nong Toom's love life for instance.
It is directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham (Pleasure Factory (2007)), who is busy with his next film, an exciting Thai-US action movie with Tony Jaa, Ron Perlman, Dolph Lundgren etc. called Skin Trade (2015).
Beautiful Boxer is a great film that I warmly recommend! 

Related posts:

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Watch the English language trailer here

Budget: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of Beautiful Boxer?
Other great martial arts films with an unusual angle to them?

The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012) - The 2004 tsunami depicted in one of the strongest disaster films ever

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Spanish movie of the Year
+ Best Disaster Movie of the Year 

Naomi Watts in one of the staggeringly realistic moments of J.A. Bayona's The Impossible

The true story of a family's survival during the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.

Naomi Watts in one of her best performances yet, as the mother in J.A. Bayona's The Impossible

Ewan McGregor (I Love You Philip Morris (2009)) and Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive (2001)), who was Oscar-nominated for her performance, both turn in incredible work in this the definitive movie about the 'impossible' mega-catastrophe that killed more than 230,000 people across several nations.
With a fascinating visual side that recreates the disaster in uncanny realism, subdued use of music and brutal reality in terms of the survival on the South-Thai island in the after-wake, the audience is made into sobbing participants in the struggle for unity and survival for the family that we follow. 
Only the first 20 minutes of the movie could perhaps stand a bit stronger.

Tom Holland and Naomi Watts on a poster for J.A. Bayona's The Impossible

The Impossible is a beautiful, healing film, and the child actors Oaklee Pendergast (Wer (2013)), Samuel Joslin (Paddington (2014)) and Tom Holland (Heart of the Sea (2015)) as the bigger son all play incredibly as well. I have seen the film both in a jam-packed Copenhagen cinema and with Thais in Northern Thailand, and I can attest to its strength across peoples, cultures and borders of all kind. The Impossible is a transcendent, incredible film.
The Spanish director J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage (2007)) has now also directed a few episodes of Penny Dreadful (2014-) and is also attached to A Monster Calls (2016) and World War Z 2.

Related posts:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Watch the trailer here, devastating in its beauty and tragedy just as the movie is

Budget: 45 mil. $
Box office: 198 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of The Impossible?
If you have any personal stories about the film, please go ahead and share here

The Beach (2000) or, Paradise Never Lasts

♥♥♥♥

A seemingly hypnotized, naked star Leonardo DiCaprio looks up from a sandy beach on this poster for Danny Boyle's The Beach

A young American backpacker in Thailand comes across a map that shows the way to a secret island paradise. He follows the map with a young French couple, joining a young utopia on the isle, - but there are snakes in this paradise...

The Beach is written by John Hodge (A Life Less Ordinary (1997)), adapting the same-titled 1996 novel by Alex Garland (The Coma (2004)), and directed by Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave (1994)).

Boyle exhibits his very own kind of cynical naiveté and shallowness with The Beach, but in spite of this, it's a good film; because of its reverberating images, (great, Iranian cinematographer Darius Khondji (The Ninth Gate (1999)) transforms the striking locales into a visual feast); the steaming 1990s soundtrack and its archetypal story of the (young person's) Great Journey, which as so often before succeeds in drawing its audiences to it.
Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic (1997)) became even more of a heartthrob phenomenon through The Beach, and the posters were standard wall adornment in many teenagers' rooms in the years around its release, but it won't be remembered as one of his best performances.
Despite releasing in 2000, the film strikes me as very 1990s. The Beach already feels like it was made long time ago, but that is not meant as a criticism.

 

Related posts:

Danny Boyle: 127 Hours (2010) - Boyle and Franco get stuck with an inconsequential true story
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Sunshine (2007) - Boyle's great-looking, suspenseful sci-fi 
28 Days Later (2002) or, Fast Zombies in England 

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

 

 

Watch a trailer for The Beach here 

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 144 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 2.88 times its cost)

[The Beach premiered 2 February (USA) and runs 119 minutes. DiCaprio was paid 20 mil. $ for his performance. Shooting took place from January - April 1999 in Thailand, including in Bangkok, and in England, including in London. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Scream 3, to a 15..2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 39.7 mil. $ (27.6 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. Boyle returned with Strumpet (2001, TV movie), Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise (2001, TV movie) and theatrically with 28 Days Later (2002). DiCaprio returned in Don's Plum (2001). The Beach is rotten at 23 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Beach?

Only God Forgives (2013) - Refn's violent vigilante beauty in Bangkok

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Danish Movie of the Year

Visually restrained yet fiercely energetic and powerful, this sun-drenched French poster for Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives

Danish master filmmaker, writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive (2011)) returns to his old strange, twisted self with Only God Forgives, his 9th feature, which resembles his Mads Mikkelsen-starring mute viking psych-out Valhalla Rising (2009) and his John Turturro-starring crime mystery Fear X (2003) more than his preceding smash hit Drive. Perhaps therefore it disappointed a lot of critics and audiences at the time of its release, who, after the more conventional and very popular Drive, just didn't seem to get it.
- But pay no heed to that negative hype; Only God Forgives is an unmissable film. And how often does a phenomenal filmmaker invite us on a sword-and-martial-arts-mixing modern western myth with big stars in Bangkok? Frankly, I think that many critics and audiences were blinded by conventions and ungrateful, wrong expectations.

Only God Forgives is the story of two brothers. One is bad; he kills and rapes a young girl and gets murdered for it. The other tries to be good, but is damaged and put under new pressure by their ruthless, drug-running mother to avenge her lost son. Meanwhile, a fierce local cop exerts a kind of Old Testament justice in Bangkok's grimy netherworld of criminal filth.

In other words, it's a totally straightforward and perfectly understandable basic story. The pace is, - regardless of what others may write, - stable and continually moves ahead in an old-fashioned western/horror-kind of steady rhythm, - with gruesomely violent and sexually charged scenes coming one after the next, each serving a clear purpose for the story.
Ryan Gosling (Drive (2011)) is awesomely cool here once again as a very silent protagonist, - this time not as a winner type, however, - and British actress Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient (1996)), boldly gone along on this film which is nothing like what she usually does, is a superb matriarchal villain, whose deviousness and possible wrongdoings onto her sons in the past haunt her behavior - and theirs. Thai actor Vithaya Pansringarm (The Hangover Part II (2011)) also does wonders as the mystical, local cop, who exerts a Dirty Harry (1971)/Death Wish (1974) type official vigilante justice, which feels fresh and unlike any before seen vengeance mission, both due to his performance and the execution, but also due to its implicit feeling of its being a mysterious, righteous justice from the East upon the traveling, incoming wretches of the West.
The title, like the rest of the film, is not designed to be a crowd-pleaser. Religious people will most likely dislike its implications, and surely we can all agree that it's not the nicest of thoughts that only God forgives. I think it is to be considered in terms of genre and as a hint as to the logic of the stern Thai avenger we meet in the film. Though Only God Forgives is an art film and a genre enjoyment, (SPOILER the gruesome eye-spearing shot is as taken right out of a Lucio Fulci horror film of the 1980s), its title is probably decided to resonance such films as Gianfranco Parolini's Lee Van Cleef-starring spaghetti western, God's Gun (1976). It also incarnates the villainous mother's crude perception of life.
DP Larry Smith (The Guard (2011)), composer Cliff Martinez (Contagion (2011)), costume designer Wasitchaya 'Nampeung' Mochanakul and art director's Witoon 'Boom' Suanyai and Russell Barnes (Howl (2010)) also deserve the highest compliments for an aesthetically amazing, pompously decadent and neon-drenched dream of a film, meticulously carved out, which looks and sounds amazing.

SPOILER Besides everything else, I love the film's strange, beautiful and darkly funny karaoke-sequences and the ending. Only God Forgives is a truly rare film that should be watched, and can be watched many times, each time registering something new.

It may also be Gosling's last starring vehicle in a good while, as he has said that he wants to retire from acting and is now directing his first, mysteriously sounding, How to Catch a Monster (2014), about a secret underwater town. (Ed. note: That film ended up being retitled Lost River (2014), a major flop which critics also axed, and Gosling is now back in front of the camera where he belongs.)

Refn is slated to do a 200 mil. $ remake of the 1976 sci-fi-classic, Logan's Run. Whether this will ever actually happen, and whether a good movie will come out of it, I have my anxieties and doubts. (Ed. note: This was scrapped, and Refn is instead focusing on a horror movie for 2016, titled The Neon Demon.) Together with Only God Forgives, his best film remains, in my opinion, Pusher II (2004), very worth seeing for anyone just slightly hooked by his films.

Related posts:

Nicolas Winding Refn: The Neon Demon (2016) or, Jesse Goes to Hollywood 

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

Top 10: Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess 

Top 10: Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Drive (2011) - Refn's muscle-flexing, über-cool audience favorite
Bronson (2008) or, Violent Man

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Top 10: Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

With Blood on My Hands: Pusher II/Pusher II (2004) - Refn's magnetic snapshot of Copenhagen's criminal underground

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Bleeder (1999) - The mysterious second film by Nicolas Winding Refn 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 4.8 mil. $
Box office: 10.6 mil. $
= Flop (returned 2.2 times the cost)
[Only God Forgives premiered 22 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place in Bangkok. Thailand. The film opened #26 to a 313k $ first weekend in 78 theaters in North America, its peak there although it widened to 81 cinemas, grossing 779k $ (7.3 % of the total gross). North America was its 3rd biggest market. The biggest and 2nd biggest were France with France with 3.6 mil. $ (40 %) and the UK with 1.8 mil. $ (17%). The film won 3/7 nominations at the Robert awards (Denmark's Oscar), among other honors. Refn returned with a Hennessey X.O. commercial in 2016 and theatrically with The Neon Demon (2016). Gosling returned in The Big Short (2015); Thomas in Before the Winter Chill/Avant l'Hiver (2013); and Pansringarm in short film Gutted (2013) and theatrically in Ninja: Shadow of a Tear (2013). Only God Forgives is rotten at 40 % and a 5.3/10 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Only God Forgives?