Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

Darth Vader vs Obi Wan Kenobi: 2/5




Ok so the lightsaber fight is nothing to write home about. But, this is an all time classic movie. And no one reading this is unaware of that. Go watch it, it's great.

The Clash a.k.a. Bẫy Rồng (2009)

Opening sword fight: 1.5/5


Gang Fight: 3.5/5


Phoenix/Tiger vs French Gangsters: 3.75/5


Woods fight: 3.75/5


Tiger vs Hac Long: 2.75/5


End Fight: 4.25/5




I enjoyed this film. The same two leads as The Rebel. Johnny Nguyen is great as usual. Ngo Thanh Van has improved. She was great in The Rebel and she's even better here. I also like her with the short hair, but that's a personal preference.

The opening fight is more of a violence vignette. After that, all of the fights are very good. And, as it should be, the finale was the best part. Really great exchanges, storytelling and intensity. Recommended. 

Vengeance Of An Assassin (2014)

Soccer game: 3.25/5


Warehouse Fight: 3.25/5


Dr. Si Foo vs Assassins: 3.75/5


Garage/Train fight: 3.5/5


Than vs Assassins: 3.75/5


Than vs Pod: 2.75/5



Man, this was disappointing. Well, since this was Panna Rittikrai's last film (as a director) let's start with the positives. The best action scene in the movie isn't rated here by me because it's a shootout. Dan Chupong shoots his way through bad guys through a 4 minute long take with machine guns, grenades and explosions galore. You might be wondering, does Dan Chupong dual wield machine guns through the whole scene? The answer is yes. 

The choreography in the hand to hand action is on point. Panna was a true master at that. Very dynamic stuff, and Nantawooti Boonrapsap outperforms Chupong in that regard. 

The best fight in the whole movie is when the old Chinese Doctor beats up a bunch of henchmen. The henchmen walk into a dark room. The lights turn on, and the old man appears in the middle of them all, and proceeds to punch, kick and palm strike them all to unconsciousness. Save for one guy who runs away. Then the lights go out again, and the old man disappears. Like a kung fu Undertaker. That was awesome. 

Ok, now to the bad stuff. This movie is very fragmented. It doesn't make a lot of sense. A lot of character motivations are nonexistent and each character lacks depth. They're mostly a bunch of archetypes thrown together. The stoic hero, the damsel in distress, the arrogant villain, the valiant young hero, the badass femme fatale, the wise old Chinese kung fu doctor (seriously he is awesome, though). And all of this would be fine if we had any reason to care about these characters. None is given.

Also, the CGI. Oh my God the CGI. I know it's commonplace to complain about CGI in action movies, but this is about as bad as it gets. The fight scene inside the train, is really well done, including Boonrapsap using a chicken bone as a weapon to slice up henchmen. Great stuff. Then they go on top of the train. And the rest of this action sequence is green screened. All of it. It distracts from some of the great choreo and stunt work being done because it's so obvious no one is on a moving train. Thai cinema got attention from practical stunt work, so I have no idea why they do this. The scene gets dumber, when the train ends up colliding with a falling helicopter. There's more details as to why this is really dumb, but just know that it is. 

Did I mention, by the way, that The Chinese Doctor only speaks English the whole way through the film? He doesn't even speak Chinese, ever. He's a doctor living in Thailand who can't speak any Thai and only ever speaks English. It's ludicrous. 

I'm sure there were more dumb things but I can't remember them all. This movie reminded me of Furious 7 at times, and that's NOT what I want in my Thai action cinema. I would say skippable, but since it's Panna's last film...give it a shot. 

Ip Man (2008)

Ip Man vs Liu: 2.25/5


Northerner vs Master: 2.75/5


Northerner vs Weapons Master: 2.75/5


Northerner vs Liu: 3/5


Northerner vs Ip Man: 3.75/5


Liu vs Black belt: 2/5


General vs Lin and Two Men: 2/5


Liu vs 3 black belts: 2.5/5


Ip Man vs 10 Black Belts: 4.25/5


Ip Man vs Soldiers: 2/5


Factory Fight: 3.5/5


Ip Man vs General: 4/5




Great movie. Donnie Yen's best role. Recommended.

SPL 2: A Time For Consequences (2015)

Chatchai vs Kit: 3/5


Prison Riot Fight: 3.5/5


Ah-zai vs Cops: 2.25/5


Kit, Wah & Chatchai vs henchmen: 3/5


Kit vs Ah-zai: 3.25/5


Fight in the Dark: 2.75/5


Kit & Chatchai vs henchmen & Ko Chun: 3.75/5



A lot of people compare this movie to The Raid 2. I don't quite see it. The Raid 2 is an excellent sequel to an excellent movie. SPL 2 is a good sequel to a good movie. I guess the tones are similar as well as both movies featuring a cop going undercover and also being in a prison when a prison fight breaks out. But that's about where it ends.

I gotta say, this is the best Tony Jaa movie since Ong Bak 2 (not counting Furious 7). It might even be his best work, overall. As an actor and a screen fighter, he's one of the better parts of the film. Wu Jing is also great. A better actor than Jaa, but towards the end of his screen fighting prime, he carries the film's emotional weight.

There are a bunch of good fights in this movie, but not one truly great fight. There's also some suspect use of wire fu. Considering this is a modern crime film, seeing guys fly through the air can be jarring. Jing and Jaa square off in the first fight and it's solid stuff, if a bit short. The prison fight is also good with a lot of moving parts and long takes. I do slightly prefer The Raid 2's prison fight, though.

The knife vs nightstick fight towards the end, clearly an homage to Wu Jing vs Donnie Yen in one of the best fights of all time from the first SPL, is not in the same league as the original. It's a good fight, it only suffers by comparison. However, when "store the sun" plays in the minutes leading up to that, I got real excited. That's one of the more iconic fight scene themes ever, to me.

Let's talk about Max Zhang, the Big Bad of this flick. He's quite good here. The main problem I have with him, and his part in the finale, is the wire work. A pet peeve of mine is when a character is a lot stronger than the others, seemingly only because he's fighting on wires while they are not. Jaa and Jing are kicking ass the whole movie with straight Muay Thai and Wushu. Zhang's flying around throwing wire kicks. But that's not his fault.

The finale is the best fight in the movie. Jaa taking out the henchmen is some of the better choreography I've seen all year. It's also such a breath of fresh air to see Muay Thai used in a modern, Hong Kong action film. Wu Jing plays such a good hero, night and day from his original SPL character. One thing this movie does well is have the heroes always fighting from underneath. Jing and Jaa are beat to hell by the time they have to take on Zhang.

The best part of the finale is when Jaa squares off with Zhang. Jaa attempts Muay Thai moves he's been using effectively the whole movie and Zhang has a counter for all of them. Such smart choreography. Because of course, Zhang has seen Jaa fight before, so he has that advantage. It devolves after that, though. The 2 on 1 stuff has more wire fu and unfortunately the fight has an implausible conclusion. There's also a weird side part with Jaa's daughter that felt unnecessary.


It's a solid action movie with some really good parts. All in all, Mildy Recommended.

Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith (2006)

Anakin Skywalker/Obi Wan Kenobi vs Count Dooku: 3.75/5


Obi Wan Kenobi vs General Grievous: 3/5


Mace Windu and other Jedi vs Palpatine: 3/5


Yoda vs Palpatine: 3.5/5


Obi Wan Kenobi vs Anakin Skywalker: 4.25/5




I'm risking credibility here, but I actually enjoyed this movie. It's not a good movie, but I found a lot to like here. Maybe it's because the other prequels lowered my expectations so much that I don't even think of this in the context of a Star Wars movie, but rather as a straight up action movie. And as action movies go, this delivered.

Sure, Hayden Christensen is still terrible. But he does less talking and more lightsaber dueling in this movie. Yes, him and Padme still have no chemistry. But there's less scenes of them together in this movie.

This movie has by far the most lightsaber action of all the Star Wars movies (as of this writing). And you can tell they really went for it. The final fight between Anakin and Obi Wan is truly epic. I know people want to resist giving it its due because the prequels, as an entity, has hurt something close to them. I have no such attachment to Star Wars. I can tell you, from a choreography and performance standpoint, it is definitively the best lightsaber fight in the entire franchise. I'm including Clone Wars in that, as well. Now, that doesn't make Darth Vader looking up and screaming, "NOOOOO!" 5 minutes later ok. That's not ok, that was stupid. But that end fight is still amazing. And the score is terrific too.


Look, this is not a great film, but it is the best of the prequels by far. If you want action, you'll dig this. If you want a well told story with great characters, what makes you think the prequels would start that now? Thumbs in the middle on this one. Mildly recommended.

Star Wars Episode 2: Attack Of The Clones

Obi Wan Kenobi vs Jango Fett: 1/5


Obi Wan Kenobi vs Count Dooku: 2.75/5


Anakin Skywalker vs Count Dooku: 3.25/5


Yoda vs Count Dooku: 3.5/5



This movie is garbage. The worst of the prequels. Even though there is more action in this than "Phantom", it doesn't reach the heights of the lightsaber duel in that film. Although, there is less Jar Jar Binks.

But what there is more of, and what the movie is centered around, is the love story between Padme and Anakin. I hate it. It's one of the worst love stories of all time. They have less than no chemistry. Natalie Portman is usually good, but in every scene with Anakin here she's terrible. And Hayden Christensen is even worse. His casting is one of the worst castings of all time.  I'm not exaggerating, I can't think of worse love stories or casting as I type this. Truly awful.

The lightsaber fights at the end are pretty fun, but not enough to make up for the atrocity that is the rest of this movie. "Phantom" was boring, but this movie was aggressively bad. Skip it.