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Starring |
Johnny Nguyen
,
Nantawooti Boonrapsap
,
Paytaai Wongkamlao
,
Sasisa Jindamanee
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Directed By |
Krissanapong Rachata
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Audio
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DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
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Visuals
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16:9 Widescreen
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Running Time |
76 mins
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UK Release Date |
July 5, 2010
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Genre |
Action, Asian
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Our Rating |
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User Rating |
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It’s ‘The Famous Five’ meets Die Hard in the latest Thai action flick from the people that brought you Ong Bak.
Force Of Five focuses on a group of young students of a Muay Thai school. Unfortunately, the youngest member of the martial arts-practicing gang is suffering from an acute heart condition, which eventually lands him in hospital and in need of a life-saving transplant. When a viable heart becomes available at another hospital, things begin to look up for the young tyke, until, that is, before the heart can be transferred the hospital is overtaken by terrorists. In order to save their sick pal, the Muay Thai kids infiltrate the hospital and take on the bad guys.
Thailand has been responsible for some of the most distinctive martial arts movies of recent years, with stand-out contributions including Beautiful Boxer, The Bodyguard, Chocolate and of course, the mighty Ong Bak (that jumping through barbed-wire scene still makes me wet myself a little bit out of sheer uncontrollable excitement), and while Force Of Five (otherwise known as Power Kids) doesn’t quite live up to those past glories, it’s a short, sweet and relatively entertaining ride.
While the film may not boast the high calibre cast and production values of the big screen’s current ass-kicking kid movie, The Karate Kid (not to mention a paper-thin plot and one too many iffy performances), it does present some glorious action courtesy of the high-kicking youths, and the film’s simplicity and sentimental streak makes Force Of Five come across like a bizarre, martial arts-filled episode of ‘The Red Hand Gang’, which can only be a good thing surely.
Sadly, while the Blu-ray’s visuals and audio present a solid enough upgrade from the DVD, the extras let the side down, boasting only a couple of five-minute ‘behind the scenes’ type featurettes and a selection of not-so-interesting interviews.
Overall Verdict: A peculiar but entertaining kids martial arts movie, though the Blu-ray extras let the side down.
Special Features:
Interviews With Cast And Crew
‘Making Of’ Featurette
‘Behind The Scenes’ Featurette
Trailers
Reviewer: Lee Griffiths
