Ong Bak

More martial arts this week. I enjoyed this one much more. Probably some of the sweetest fight scenes I've ever seen. And there was even some comedic moments mixed in too, to help keep my narcoleptic-ass engaged.

The leading dude, Tony Jaa, is pretty unsuspecting; smaller, lean physique, yet he regularly beats the shit out of guys 2 or 3 times his size.

One of my favorite Bad-Ass moments? When dude's legs are literally ON FIRE and he kicks the crap out of a bad guy, also catching him on fire. There was bullet-dodging, crafty (yet painful to watch) saw blade/knife action and even a beloved explosion.

I really dug this movie. Good pace, lots of moments where he has to save someone and just all around well-choreographed fight scenes where one lonesome dude has to take on a mob. He even took down a 'roided out dude not once, but twice. Even drug enhancements couldn't stop 'im.

We ended up giving it 4 stars out of 5. I was willing to give it a higher rating, but Doug talked me out of it. His reasoning was, as usual, "it wasn't Die Hard," but I think we may have to re-evaluate our rating system, specifically the Die Hard comparisons.

Anywho, rating aside, this was legit Bad-Ass.

Did Tam cry? I did! Toward the end, during the passing of one of the characters. Couldn't help myself.

13 Assassins

Thirteen Assassins had been in our queue for a while, so last night, we finally gave it a shot.

Good (and true) story line, though that first hour had me either nodding off or grimacing at the violence. Some hari-kari mixed with some pretty fucked up results from a corrupt and all around sociopathic leader.

The battle scene was plentiful (took up most of the second half of the film), gruesome, high-paced and impressive. Thirteen samurais taking on an army of over 200. Mostly sword fighting, but some other weaponry as well. There were even some explosions, which always scores extra points. Insane, bloody and a victorious ending. Well, mostly.

We agreed on 4 stars out of 5. I was leaning toward 3.5 and Doug wanted 4.5, so we split the difference.

Killer Elite

Little bit of a delay in getting this watched this week, but we still made it before the new work week. This seemed like a decent choice given the cast. Three of my favorite boys with "Killer" in the title? Sure, why not.

Slowest two hours of my life. Occasional gruesome violence. Lots of double-crossing. It was pretty "meh" until the last 25 minutes or so. Plenty of building-jumping, hand-to-hand combat and close calls. Even De Niro kept up with the young bloods and had a few good moves. In fact, those last few minutes saved the rating a bit.

Overall, we agreed 3 stars out of 5. It just moved too slow and while the last few scenes were good, there just wasn't enough edge-of-your seat moments. Or explosions. Definitely needed more explosions.

Did Tam cry? No.