Movie Review: Fireball (2009)

It's not a bad idea to mix Muay Thai and basketball, but only in equal parts, please. Conceptually imbalanced, Fireball has too much Muay Thai and not enough basketball, and way too much shaky cam. Problems arise mainly from the plot: Tai, recently released from prison, finds out his brother has been left in a coma by a rival team of underground roundballers. He decides the only way to get back at them is to join another team for the upcoming tournament. So far so good. Once the tournament gets underway, however, we are introduced to the rules of this hybrid sport: 5-on-5, anything goes, first to score or last team standing wins. That takes away the most significant dramatic device available in basketball: the clock. Without it, there's no real drive to the "games," no narrative urgency, no countdown to keep things moving, and all four contests shown in the film involve a lot of mindless martial arts and conspicuously little basketball. It's like a poor man's Ong Bak, except the guy who substitutes for Tony Jaa gets to hold a basketball while he strikes his opponents. You only have to make one shot to win the game, yet nobody seems able to get a decent layup or short jumper. Also, why even dribble the ball if there's no rules? Why worry about traveling when lead pipes can be brought in off the bench? Sure, the Muay Thai itself is not bad, but the novelty of the concept unquestionably lies in the integration of Muay Thai techniques with those of basketball. Because the game has no rules, and only a single basket can end the game, offensive and defensive strategy mainly involves beating the stuffing out of someone else and then trying to dunk the ball, only to be rebuffed at the last minute by a running knee or a spin kick because nobody playing in these games understands the fundamentals of ball movement. As a result of such contrivances, much of the editing during the fight scenes is choppy and discontinuous, and the ball, inconsistently documented, warps around the court seemingly without rhyme or reason. It's rarely clear who is about to score, or even how close they are to the basket, so the whole thing comes off as a series of big fights that end when someone simply finds the nerve to sink a five footer. Even the fight scenes lack the kind of spirit or inventiveness of Jaa's best work, and this is not helped by the headache-inducing cinematography that blurs most of the moves beyond recognition, to say nothing of appreciation. There's really nothing in Fireball to recommend. In this case, it's not the ingredients that make for a bad flavor, it's the recipe.