The original Ong Bak has been called the greatest action film ever made, revered with the kind of kung fu worship usually reserved only for Drunken Master 2. Now the trailer for the sequel, Ong Bak 2 has started floating around, and the buzz has already started to anoint the follow-up as being every bit as good.
It isn’t.
I saw Ong Bak 2 at SXSW this year and it’s a bore. Not just because the plot is a horrible, incomprehensible mess. This is a Tony Jaa movie and obviously, no one cares about that. But the action isn’t good enough or plentiful enough to make up for it, and that’s the real sin. There’s a rumor going around that the movie’s been re-cut, that may help it, but since they’ve only removed six minutes I don’t see how. In the new Ong Bak 2 trailer you’ll see some things which may seem exciting. In context, please believe that they are not. You’ve been warned. Here’s the trailer:
