Plot: Booting lives in a rural Thai town. When the head of the sacred Buddah statue Ong-bak is stolen, it becomes Ting's task to go to Bangkok and recover it from Don, the gangster behind it's disappearance. Extremely athletic, and thoroughly trained in the ancient art of Muay Thai, Ting is adequately equipped to recover the priceless stone head. However, he has to find it first, and that means going through and around a number of henchmen.

Comments: Wow. Even now, over 24 hours after seeing this film, that is the only word I can come up with for this movie. Wow. This is, perhaps, the best action movie I've seen in my lifetime. It is hands down the best martial arts film I've ever seen. I know it seems exaggerated, but I believe that the young star of this film, Tony Jaa, will someday be as revered as Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow and company, and I honestly believe that he's got what it takes to surpass the great Bruce Lee. He is nothing short of amazing. Tony Jaa. Tony Jaa. Say it again. Tony Jaa. Don't forget that name...so that in 5 years, you can say, "oh, yeah, that guy? I've been a fan for a while now. Welcome to the bandwagon."

I really don't think I can go on about this film enough. On the other hand, words cannot do it justice. This is far from a typical martial arts movie. In fact, the only thing typical about it is it's story. I'll go ahead and get all of the negative stuff out there. You've got a typical storyline (and I do mean typical...it's obvious that the plot of this movie is nothing more than filler between action sequences). There's the acting, which is acceptable at times, and at other times is downright painful to watch. The direction is good, but nothing we've never seen before. The action, though. The martial arts. It is...wow. I'm going to talk this film up like it's the second-coming of Christ, and you'll still see it and think, "damn, he couldn't write anything any better than that for this film?" See it as soon as it's released to the United States. Promise me that, and I'll do something I haven't done before and include a link to the film's trailer:

http://www.ongbakmovie.com/pages/com...railer_lg.html

Know that this trailer is but a taste of what you get in the movie. An appetizer for a full, 5-course feast of serious ass-kicking action...all of which (including what you see in the trailer) is done with no wires or special effects. This film was so amazing that I found myself rolling my eyes through a Stephen Chow film that has only seen the light of day once (at the Toronto film festival). How many martial arts films out there can overshadow the world premier of a Stephen Chow movie? Only one, that I can think of.

I'll part with a quip from a review written by somebody that was in the audience with me. I think this sums up perfectly just what this film has to offer: "I told my brother once that no one could possibly do the move in Street Fighter when you hit a-b-a-b Up down left. Ong Bak, you proved me wrong."

See this film now. Thank me later.