Tacky Thai martial-arts adventure about a backwater Buddha's head severed and stolen by Bangkok bad guys, and about the acrobatic rube who answers the call: "If we can't recover Ong-Bak's head, our village is doomed." (Ong-Bak and the Thai warrior, clearly, are separate entities.) The filmmaking style places a heavy emphasis on instant replays, and the martial-arts style -- which seems to be known as Muay Thai -- places a heavy emphasis on elbows, especially the elbow brought down on the crown of the head like a poleax. Tony Jaa, the would-be next Jackie Chan, has a lot of moves, but no movie around them. Directed by Prachya Pinkaew. (2005) — Duncan Shepherd
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