Tony Jaa's The Protector 2 Teaser

Good news, guys: embedded below is the official teaser trailer for Tom Yum Goong 2, also known by the English title The Protector 2, sequel to one of Tony Jaa's best films (nothing, in our opinion, has topped Ong-Bak). You can learn more about the film, which is nearing completion, from those informative folks at City on Fire.

Finest Fights: The Protector (2005)

Remember that series where we post videos of our favorite fight scenes on YouTube? This is it. Get ready for some rumbling in non-Canadian metropolitan areas.

It's like Touch of Evil (1958), but with way more Muay Thai.

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.

Our Third Podcast, Still On iTunes!

This week we bring you the third episode of the CRN Podcast, embedded below for you convience, and subtitled "Rumble in Vancouver," for our own amusement.

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Movie Review: Ong-Bak (2003)

I don't know if there's ever been a martial arts film that circumvents its own narrative with the same energy as Ong-Bak. Sure, there's a story here, about the theft of a sacred statue and a young man's quest to return the totem to his village, but whatever the reason we are given for Tony Jaa's acrobatics, those reasons are quickly erased by the presentation of his considerable choreographed skills. You don't need to know why Jaa is fighting so-and-so; all you need to know is how he's fighting so-and-so. He communicates the importance of the contest, indeed tells the entire story of the contest, with his body alone. In that sense, the cinematography during the fight scenes, cinematography which stays a fair distance away from Jaa and rarely moves in for a close-up, provides him with the appropriate means to put his dance on display. Context is everything; because the camera generally keeps his entire body in frame, you don't miss the sum of his movements. Jaa thrives on the realism of his presentation, much like any professional athlete worthy of awe, and any overtly artificial technique, such as rapid editing or close-ups, would simply hack him to pieces, and we would not see the chemistry between him, his opponent, his surroundings, and his own body. It's significant that Ong-Bak makes liberal use of replays to show us the same stunts from different angles, and in slow-mo. Such replays break up the narrative, stalling the story so we can have another look at Jaa's latest feat of daring-do. The story practically evaporates in these moments. Ong-Bak is like an early Jackie Chan film, where his rare physical talents are showcased, rather than his reputation; and even though Jaa is not yet on the same level as Chan in communicating the psychology of his fights, they may be equals in raw athletic prowess.