There are fewer phrases guaranteed to make a reviewer shudder with cold dread more than written by, directed by and starring stuntmen. This is not a dig exclusively at the stunt profession, you understand. Id have roughly the same attitude to a film entirely conceived and performed by make-up artists or best boy grips (I still dont know what one of those is). Films work because each person is concentrating on doing what they do best, writers writing, directors directing, cameramen filming and so on. When stunt performers start getting ideas to the contrary, you usually end up with something like Bangkok Adrenaline. Or this.
The film centres around four buddies on a backpacking holiday in Thailand, where a string of poor bets leaves them owing a large sum of cash to the local loan shark, who threatens them with death unless they can pay up by the end of the week. In desperation they kidnap the teenage daughter of a local millionaire and attempt to ransom her back to him and then theres some fighting. Oh, did I mention the buddies are skilled martial artists? Dont worry, the script doesnt either.
To call the acting poor is to miss the perfect opportunity to use the phrases God-awful, rancidly abysmal and Oh Christ make it stop, no seriously, theres blood coming out of my face. The four central actors are barely watchable, their wooden delivery made even worse by what appear to be genuine attempts at comedic banter. At several points, the actors just trail off in the middle of a sentence as if they were unsure if it was their time to speak. If anything, the real actors, who just provide speaking roles, are worse. Geoffrey Giuliano as primary antagonist Harris produces a performance so mind-rapingly awful, the words I write here couldnt possibly do it justice.
As you might expect, the film is only watchable during the fight scenes and you know what? Theyre pretty good. The performers clearly know what theyre doing, and when the time does come to kick seven shades out of hordes of anonymous Asian men, the film actually transforms into something, dare I say it, entertaining. The battles role along nicely, containing enough back flips and roundhouses to please the giggling teenager that hides in the mind of most of us. In fact, had the movie been an hour and a half of fighting interspersed with the odd couple of minutes of non-challenging expositional dialogue; we might have had something worthwhile, in a brainless Friday-night-after-the-pub kind of way. As it is, the cast mistakenly place their faith in the script and their own acting ability and end up with egg on their faces.
Bangkok Adrenaline is my favourite kind of film to review because its bad. The creators were obviously going for cult status with this one a so bad its good kind of fare in the same vein as Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus or Troll 2. What they ended up with is just a depressingly amateurish attempt at an action film where every possible mistake has been made.
Overall Verdict: Log on to Youtube, type great fight scenes into the search box, watch the results. You are now having more fun than sitting through Bangkok Adrenaline. Total guff.
Special Features:
Making-of Documentary
Trailers for other Optimum Releases
Reviewer: Alex Hall