User reviews

I remember the movie called "Ong-bak ". I was so impressed the real action of Tony Jaa. I became a fan of him.

But this movie is totally worse. If i saw his this movie for the first time I will never have a feeling like that.

the CG effects are very low quality. actually Tony Jaa doesn't need any CG effects. We love his genuine action. The producers and director ruined Tony Jaa's abilities by adding over CG effects!

The script is very very vary poor. Specially the roof scenes with motor bikes! never acceptable!! If you love Tony Jaa I advice not to watch this movie, You will definitely brake your image of Tony Jaa !!!

Tony, Tony, Tony… What have you been up to? First you entice us with your crazy stunts in Ong Bak and follow up with knockout Tom Yum Goong but then you've really fallen off the radar. The guy literally blasted onto the screen from nowhere and became an instant star in the martial arts world. With Jackie Chan and Jet Li aging and Donnie Yen producing material of inconsistent quality, action fans were hungry for a worthy successor. We thought that person may have been Tony Jaa and it still might be.

Fans of Jaa will know that he had been previously tied into the worst 10-year movie contract ever heard of by Sahamongkol Film International. The contract prevented him from doing any film other than the ones they wanted. Jaa had something of a breakdown and there were even stories that Jaa left the sets of the Ong Bak sequels to go and become a monk in a monastery. The 10 years expired and the guy is now back on the big screen – but wait! He signed on again with the same damn production company and they are once again being complete morons! Following recent news that Jaa had signed on to star in the next Fast & Furious movie, Sahamongkol Film once again threatened legal action against Jaa stating that he'd broken his contract by taking on work without their permission. For us lucky movie fans, it looks like Jaa is going ahead with Fast 7 despite this, as well as Hong Kong movie SPL 2 with Wu Jing! Excellent news indeed!

Jaa's movies have always been simple movies reminiscent of Van Damme movies from yesteryear. They have a lot of heart and a lot of ass kicking. In the original Tom Yum Goong (AKA The Protector), Jaa's elephants get kidnapped and brought over to Australia. Jaa goes over and gets them back. Simple! The movie was pretty badass, featuring an amazing one take sequence as Jaa makes his way to the top of a building, taking down loads of bad guys on the way.

There was also a crazy Jaa vs. 50 bad guys sequence towards the end of the movie. It was pretty cool stuff for martial arts fans, especially as Jaa has always looked like he could really do the stuff we see him do in his movies.

In Tom Yum Goong 2, Jaa finds himself in a predicament as his elephant is kidnapped once again, but the agenda is not so simple this time round. Big bad guy Mr. LC (RZA), a martial arts fan, wishes to use the kidnapped elephant to leverage Jaa to do his evil bidding. Jaa must find a way to stop RZA and save his elephant, all while being hunted by what appears to be almost everyone in Thailand.

The premise sounds like the prefect setup for loads of ass kicking and mad stunts just like the original. Unfortunately, despite all the good intentions, the end product just doesn't deliver.

We don't really need a story but some essence of interconnecting events would be nice. The first half of the movie seems to be dominated by a random and ridiculously long drawn out motorbike chase scene, featuring some really terrible CGI. Gone are the real chases and stunts that we saw Jaa performing in Ong Bak, instead we have third-rate special effects and extreme ridiculousness. It doesn't even make any sense why this whole portion of the movie exists but it does.

Surprisingly, Petchtai Wongkamlao as cop sidekick Mark, was probably the best thing in this film. He provided timely comic relief whereas JeeJa Yanin, from Chocolate and Raging Phoenix fame, is shamefully underused and portrayed to be almost useless next to our hero. Rhatha Phongam is also underused, present only to serve as eye candy.

The single worst, most unforgivable element of this movie is RZA (though the other American actors come close). He has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. No on-screen presence, no charisma, terrible acting, terrible fighting, just terrible terrible terrible. I pray that no one ever allows him on a film set ever again or perhaps he should try method acting and really die at the end of his next movie.

So far things are not sounding too good. So how was the fighting? To be honest, it wasn't that great either. After the first half of the movie was dominated by the silly motorbike chase sequence, we would hope the latter half would focus more on the fights. But once the fights begin, we are not given anything that even comes close to spectacle that was seeing Jaa take down 50 guys back to back. There was nothing new and the over use of CGI ultimately reduced everything to a farce. The first fight with Maresse Crump showed potential which was just never fully realized.

It would also have been nice to see Jaa go up against several worthy adversaries instead of a handful of not so great bad guys who just don't seem to be able to die.

All I was hoping for was a competent martial arts movie and at the end of the day, that isn't what we got. Even in the absence of Jaa's original movies, I would not recommend this.

A disappointment from start to finish, I suggest you check out Jaa's earlier efforts and keep your fingers crossed that his US debut will deliver what Tom Yum Goong 2 couldn't.

One to miss and no, I didn't watch it in 3D and can't imagine it would do anything other than make the experience even worse.

Rating 5 out of 10.

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Tom Yum Goong 2 marks Tony Jaa's return since his announced retirement after the failed Ong Bak 3 and living life as a Buddhist monk. The sequel to 2005's Tom Yum Goong has Kham's elephant Khon is kidnapped once again by an evil organization that plans to blackmail Kham into assassinating the President of Katana to kick start a coup. As flimsy as that plot sounds, it is the least of its problems.

By incorporating special effects and stereoscopic 3D into the film's action scenes, Pinkaew forgets its major visual effect, namely Tony Jaa himself. The action is haphazardly cut with an embarrassingly huge amount of spatial jumps and tight close-ups that do not match, as if there was not enough usable footage. Many times the viewer enters the action after the first hit has been made. Apparently there were five editors on the project, what happened?

Tony Jaa is at not in his peak physical form, and the film seems to be hiding it from the audience. He is not as fast or hard-hitting as he once was. Jaa's choreography is restrained, for most of the group fights he just seems to be dispatching people aside as quickly as possible. And the whole time, I was waiting for Jaa to show off. Every time Ja whips out the elephant boxing style, a style that he and fight choreographer Panna invented for the previous film, are some of the film's most exciting moments. Sadly, there is very little of it.

Jeeja Yanin from Chocolate is unfortunately sidelined, she occasionally shows up to help Tony Jaa and vice versa, but otherwise there is little interaction between them. Clumsy cop comic sidekick Petchtai Wongkamlao gets some nice lines in but as seen in the first Ong Bak his strengths seem to lie in physical comedy, which he does not get to do here. The stunning Rhatha Phongam from Only God Forgives also makes a decent femme fatale, but the overabundance of supporting characters and a political assassination plot weighs everything down as the film takes on more than it can handle. Why does it have to be so complicated? Man loses elephant. Man goes and retrieves it, end of story!

RZA, together with his film The Man with the Iron Fist and self-proclaimed love of martial arts films, is forging a reputation to being a kung fu film staple. His casting as the villain is cashing in on that particular geek sheik. Atrocious acting aside, watching RZA sharing an on screen fight with Tony Jaa had me rolling my eyes. RZA movie fights just fine, but does anyone buy him gaining the upper hand on Ja?

Speaking of which, Marresse Crump, who plays the lead henchman, is a great on screen fighter who can go toe-to-toe with Tony Jaa. The first fight between Crump and Jaa had me pumped, and their last fight on a train track was the type of creative set piece I was expecting to see. Both fighters are capable of more complicated choreography but the choreographers held back with their fight. The fights always seem to be over before the audience can properly enjoy them. The first Tom Yum Goong had a video game boss level-like approach with its action sequences that kept topping each other in terms of scale and insanity, which was made it entertaining and hilarious. There is nothing to that equivalent here.

The best Prachya Pinkaew film is still Chocolate, as it had a neat creative angle and managed to incorporate its action in telling an emotional story coherently. Tom Yum Goong 2 just seems oddly distracted and unconfident about what it wants to be.

What has happened to Tony Jaa? I guess Ong Bak and The Protector were lightning in a bottle type moments because his movies are getting worse. This movie is the opposite of what made him popular in the first place. It was him with no wires or CGI, doing amazing stunts and hard-hitting martial arts. This movie not only uses wires, but horrible looking CGI and scenes obviously shot in front of a green screen. Not only does the CGI look bad in this movie but Jaa's fighting abilities seem to have taken a hit too. He looks slower and even a little sloppy at times. JeeJa Yanin is completely wasted in this movie too. Why even put her in the movie just to get beat up most of the time? And the RZA? He took an already bad movie and plunged it to the bottom of the barrel. He's a terrible actor and shouldn't be anywhere near a fight scene. I keep waiting for the magic of Jaa's first two movies to reappear but sadly I don't think that day will ever come.

Disappointed by Tom Yum Goong 2 (The Protector 2).

It is a half-baked movie. The problem I found with this second installment were mostly post-production stuff, e.g. lousy and disjointed music, rough and disjointed cut, bad CGI, bad image composition which make a real stunt looks like a fake stunt.

Yep. If only the movie was left as it was taken without any post- production things (like let the background were green), it might be more enjoyable than this half-finished movie.

The other problem was lack of screen time for Jeeja Yanin. In THE KICK, Jeeja Yanin didn't play the main character yet she stole the screen. Here, she barely exist although she appeared in the final fight.

Once you can get pass through the annoying things, the movie was actually have a better stuff which could make it a way better than Donnie Yen's Special ID.

TYG 2 was actually felt more like the sequel of Ong Bak instead of Tom Yum Goong.

The earlier scene where Tony Jaa taught children three martial art movement based on elephant movement reminded me to the earlier scene of Ong Bak which Tony Jaa exhibit all the movement from Muay Boran. I was excited watching the scene but unfortunately, that idea was developed into action only for .. err.. two fight scenes. The other fight scenes was all-the-stuff-we-have-seen-from-previous-movies.

The bikes-chase-scenes were kind of mixing between Tuk-Tuk chase scene and gambling gang chase scene from Ong Bak. This scene, which should had been great, unfortunately was the most unfortunate scene ruined by those half-finished post-production.

The actor which may gain benefit from this movie was Marrese Crump who played as Fighter #2. I counted there were four fight scenes in which he appeared. The first fight was so and so (He against Tony Jaa, Jeeja Yanin, and another girl). The second one was amazing (he against Tony Jaa). The third one was too fantasy and the CGI were not good. The fourth one, which also the final fight was good although the choreography was so and so.. but it was tense.

If I'm not mistaken, there will be a project, 'FORMLESS', which had him as a star and also collaborate with the same team from Tom Yum Goong 2. I can't wait to watch it but I wish Sahamongkol Film will really take time to finish the post-production as necessary. Releasing this kind of half-baked movie was really a grave mistake.

Saw this flick in Malaysian theater and i just have to tell you guys that this is one of the worst tony jaa flick... I just cant feel the awesomeness power of tony jaa in this movie... Ongbak 1,2,3 , the first protector is 3-4 times better compared to this movie... I am assuming that the producers and director are experimenting with their CG and 3D format technology. Too much CG really spoil the action scenes. I love the originality of his previous films... reminds me of the early Jackie Chan flick...no CG pure stunts.... There is one scene involving a couple of motorcycles on a roof top and i think this is way to ridiculous to accept...the stunt guys seems to have difficulty to control their motorcycle and again it is just so painful to watch. Don't get me started with RZA final scene with the elephant....

why oh why do they have to experiment with special effect on this movie. I was hopping it would be a good film just like what keanu reeves did in man of tai chi.....plain fun good action...

Im hoping tony jaa still can kick Ass in the upcoming fast and furious 7.

try to avoid this film if you are hoping for a good fight scenes..there is none.

Finally saw TYG 2. I have to say this is the worst tony Jaa film so far.Not one bit because of Jaa but entirely due to its director Prachya Pinkaew. Cant believe he blew such a great opportunity after giving us Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong.The basic plot is more or less the same as TYG 1 so no point in wasting time in talking about it.Lets get straight to the action.I don't understand this need to go on broad canvas and ruin the kind of films that you stood for.(Raid 2 looks to be going the same route from the last 2 promos).

There are several scenes were there was such a huge opportunity to choreograph a great fight scene but the director simply ruined it by his sudden obsession with wire work and poor CGI.

The biggest irritation for me was to see the director desperately trying to pass off Mareese Crump as this newest greatest martial artist on the block. Watch him just for 2 minutes and you realise its all a farce. Crump is not 1/10th as good as Prachya thinks he is.All his fight scenes with Jaa are poorly choreographed in an attempt to make Crump look good. You can clearly see Jaa has been asked to go half -speed and cut down on his moves to make it look like an even contest and it is all the more disbelieving that someone as novice in Capoeira as Crump can match upto Jaa when we have already seen how convincingly he took on the much superior Capoeira fighter Lateef Crowder in TYG1.The only scenes choreographed well are the ones that do not involve Crump , most definitely the one in the hotel room where an unarmed Jaa fights several armed men. Its a pretty short scene but expertly choreographed and such 1-2 scenes give glimpses of the Tony Jaa we know.Sadly the director had other ideas.

Jeeja Yanin is wasted and most of her stunts have wire work. Less said about RZA the better.This one needed a villain who could match up to the level of Jaa , someone like Scott Adkins perhaps.Tony Jaa has admittedly slowed down and looks a bit overweight than his usual lean self. age is catching up.I know Fast and furious is a crap series but i am hoping to b surprised by Jaa's outing in it. Hope they utilize his potential.

i just want to say that tonyjaa is absolutely sad waste of talent.he is great fighter.nobody perform original fight like him without wirework.but he is being waste in small budget movies,so i request to big names Hollywood director to sign him in a big movies.and i want to say BIG THANX to director of fast and furious 7' who gave tonyjaa a role. paul walker passed away wo don't know how long we have to wait for the movie.but director can raise the duration of tonyjaa'role in the movie.it ll be great chance for him and use him in a long duration fight scenes so other directors or Hollywood giants can see his performance.

speechless. simply dumb founded. JeeJa Yanin why did you let them put you so low. the effects, the RZA just weak and dumb. why. why.i waited so lone for Jaa and Yanin next movie, but i got hit with a double whammy. anyone who thinks this movie was good clearly watch and rate to many comedies. this was like,,,, really. i need a few dollars.SO. lets make a movie for 50.00. RZA isn't the answer. he is horrible actor and to darn stiff for action. RZA i was down with the Wu but this ain't you. stay be hind the seen. take lessons from great directors. om,, I'm in a ray of sadness. Please help me. tell the world this was a comedy. not the 2nd part to the Protector. Jaa, your past movies were so deep and meaningful. it had the audience trapped in suspense and down on our knees with enjoyment. again i ask. why would you disappoint us.

Yes, I disagree with most of the reviews here. It's Tony Jaa and I watch it for the action. The plot isn't much at all, but I didn't care because none of his movies have good plots. And I'm not complaining about the few moments of CGI....why does CGI explosions and fire bug anyone? The action scenes are mostly pretty great. I will agree that the motorcycle scene really did go on far too long. And no, Tony does not have the personality or charisma of Jackie Chan or even Donnie Yen. I did like the fights with Mareese Crump, especially on the train tracks, and with the girl who starred in Chocolate. If you are a fan of Tony Jaa and the Muye Thai that he can lay on someone, then you should see it. If you're looking for great acting, good script, and not even a shred of CGI, then look elsewhere.

Overall, no, it's not as good as Ong Bak, but anyone who's a fan of Tony Jaa should welcome seeing him in anything.

I give a 4 only for some serious deadly stunts done by real professional fighters. Other than that the whole movie is a waste of time. I think Tony Jaan has also gained some weight compared to his earlier movies. The roof motor cycle fight was way too lengthy and did not give any thrills. The fight in the warehouse in TYG first part was simply fantastic. There is no comparable fights in this movie. The twin sisters were good with their fights but nothing great to mention in detail about it. Jeeja Yanin was good as usual, but I think she is also completely wasted her talents in this movie. RZA, seriously why? There is only build up and no big effects. Sorry,but was very disappointed.

First off, your eyes will BLEED if you watch this in 3D, and man, I know I am good with 3D. I've been through The Hobbit, Gravity, The Wolverine, and other 3D movies, and I'm fine with all of them and enjoyed them more with 3D.

For the record, I'm a Thai, so I have a chance to see it in cinema in Thailand(of course in 3D). At the time I'm writing, it's the opening week and it's doing great.

Now to the movie.

It's a fun movie that has good action, whatever script, occasionally confusing storyline(but who cares, you come for the action), good acting, and excellent stunts. The action scenes are great for what they're worth, and are fun if you plug out the logic processor in your head.

The only problem I have with it(other than the 3D) is when the story took itself too seriously and the plot starts to get complicated. At one point an action is going on, and the plot is in the same time complicating itself, and I'm like "what the heck is this". My point is, the plot is confusing and complicated when it shouldn't be and might pull you out.

Overall, good action way too much plot.

Rating: 7/10

I finally got the opportunity to see this yesterday. I was sooooo looking forward to it: Ong Bak is one of my all time favourite martial arts movie. Within 20 minutes I was checking my watch and seriously considering walking out. It really is that bad. Tony Jaa seems to have packed on quite a few pounds and is noticeably slower in everything he does in this movie. Actions he made look effortless in Ong Bak or TYG1 he really seems to struggle to do now. The story made absolutely no sense; a huge convoluted pile of nonsense. The movie is full of truly terrible, dreadful, cgi and the finale is simply awful. Oh, and the acting, especially by the Western actors, was painful. Be warned: if you're Jewish, Muslim or vegetarian, there is an immense amount of ham on screen. A 1 star movie for me. Not even so bad it's worth watching. Just bad.

I'll admit from the outset that the first WARRIOR KING is one of my favourite films of all time; a top-notch martial arts epic that you can watch over and over again. It has everything I'd ever want from a movie, so this belated sequel had plenty to live up to. Inevitably, it simply can't hold a candle to the first movie.

But wait...everyone's panned this film, saying it's pretty terrible. I say otherwise. It's no WARRIOR KING, but it is better than the horrid ONG BAK sequels, at least. Sure, the power of the first film is diluted here with the needless and rubbish CGI effects, the unnecessary wirework and the greater silliness of the storyline, but at times there are flashes of the old magic.

One of the biggest disappointments is Tony Jaa himself. He's noticeably aged and just doesn't cut it like in the early days of ONG BAK. I expected more from him. Still, it's nice to have Thai film regulars like Petchtai Wongkamlao and CHOCOLATE's Jeeja Yanin on board, even if their screen time is limited. Unfortunately, somebody decided that the appalling rapper-wannabe-film-star RZA (THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS) would make a good villain, and boy, were they wrong.

Admittedly, WARRIOR KING 2 starts off on a poor footing; the whole look is incredibly cheesy, and that dumb chase seems to go on forever. But then things change, and after a time the plot melts away to leave the whole second half of the film one big action sequence. And this was the part I really enjoyed, laughing at the whole "all black guys are evil" theme, enjoying the unstoppable Marrese Crump, and taking delight in the fight choreography. This movie's no classic, but fans of the genre will probably enjoy it anyway.

The sequels must maintain some individuality and in turn have a firm connection with the first film in the saga. In this case we have the elephants again as a connection, and while the premise is maintained, there are variants that make this film very entertaining. While the villain (Rza) is a weak character, the rest of the story holds up and serves as a vehicle for the dazzling Tony Jaa who again blows our minds. This film is pure entertainment, which makes you thank you for being alive to witness the great superiority of Thai action cinema.

Uh oh. Someone took Tony Jaa's elephant again. Bad assery is sure to ensue. Unfortunately, it was the worst rapper turned actor since 50 Cent, The Rza that took the adorable pachyderm. Lucky for us, their heavily cut and right down awkward fight sequence doesn't come until the very end. There is actually an unintentionally hilarious shot of the Rza giving the audience his evil face as he chokes his own cohort out of anger. But bad acting aside, you have to put it aside or you wouldn't watch this, this film is entertaining. Jaa comes through once again with some awesome martial arts sequences, if only in spurts. The first hour of the movie is nothing but a series of movie stunts put together. Some of them go on a bit too long, particularly a series of stunts where he is fighting guys on motorcycles and motorized scooters. Why they don't get off the the motorcycles is unexplained, but there's a lot of amazing physical stunts in there. There are some stunts that are a bit heavy on cuts and obviously lacking continuity. This is a result of piecing tons of cuts together, including annoying ones where it's just a fist flying at the camera. But when Jaa is going full throttle it's pretty exhilarating. Don't bother with the plot, or figuring out how Jaa's character survives a fall off a sky scraper, because it makes no sense. Just know Tony Jaa really wants that elephant back, and he's going to kick butt to get him. Again.

Story: Ridiculous, boring, tons of plot holes - but who cares, it's got Tony Jaa AND JeeJa Yanin in it, right?

Martial arts choreography: Tony Jaa, half of the time, is running away from something and not fighting back. They could have shown off his great athletic skills but compared to the chase scene in Ong Back it's a joke what they do here. Also the variety of moves is rather small and unimaginative and the only thing that sets it apart from other martial arts movies is that it's Muay Thai. Enter JeeJa Yanin who has shown in her previous movies that she is a force to be reckoned with. In this movie I felt like they didn't really know what to do with her and she has to be saved by Tony's character quite often. They didn't really give her enough room to shine. Here and there you see a hint of what she's capable of but it stays more of a hint. And what's up with all the jumping against walls? I've never seen any other movie where they do kicks and jumps pushing of a wall as often as in this one. a) It gets boring after a while. b) Half the time the person doing it gets thrown or kicked (so you could call it a fail).

As a fan of martial arts I gave it a 5/10 which in my case means it's OK, I didn't fall asleep. I didn't watch it for the story. If you like a movie to also have somewhat interesting story that makes some sense it's more of a 4/10.