The Protector (Tom Yum Goong) – 4 stars

i’m gonna make this quick, because let’s face it, it’s a kung-fu movie and there’s not much to analyze here. covering off on the key bases though, this is a real stunt movie, not a wire movie, so it already rises above some of that goofy mystical reality shit even though that can be cool too. certain scenes were downright amazing, as expected: the warehouse scene, the stairway scene, the capoeira guy, the ring of bone-crunching all had us yelling out loud in the theatre. so it’s definitely a worthy flick.

my only complaints were that it took an awfully long time to get to the first action scene, and the story was even more ridiculous than the thin premises of most action movies. beating down that many guys on behalf of livestock seems a little silly, and everytime tony jaa rushes into a room and yells, ‘you stole my elephant!’ to his enemies, i couldn’t help but laugh.

better than ong bak? i’m not convinced, because i felt like that one hung together better overall, and the ‘big final battle versus huge guys’ in this one was a little more absurd than in the last one. still, this was surprisingly the #4 movie last week when it opened, and i suspect that’s because even with faults, it’s still a way fun ass-kicking flick.