Lack of good storyline.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

When criminals steal the head of their Buddha statue, a young warrior from a Thai village travels to Bangkok to get it back. This film has a fairly perfunctory plot and is really a showcase for Tony Jaa's Muay Thai skills and for the outrageous stunt skills on display here. On those terms, it's really impressive with one small flaw ... it climaxes way too early. There's a fight sequence in the middle of the film with Jaa fighting an escalating series of enemies in a bar that is so good that it completely overshadows the second half of the film. The film's actual climax is a let down by comparison.

Protagonist Ting lives in a remote village in northern Thailand; he has mastered the art of Muay Thai, aka Thai boxing, but has promised his master that he won't use it against other people. Unfortunately he is soon forced to break that promise; a man working for Bangkok villain Don steaks the head of the Ong Bak, a local Bhudda, and Ting is given the task of retrieving it. Once in Bangkok he meets his cousin Humlae; who promptly steals his money to gamble on an illegal fight… he bets on the loser but then Ling swiftly defeats the champion and gets his money back. Humlae thinks they can make a lot of money together but Ling just wants him to take him to Don. Ling, Humbae and Humbae's friend Muay Lek get involved in a number of fight, chases and other perilous moments before the inevitable final confrontation.If you like martial arts action then this is definitely worth watching. The plot is simple enough but that doesn't matter as it provides excuses for numerous martial arts fights. These are all pretty full on and at times, particularly in the final fight, fairly brutal. There is a degree of humour, especially during the chase scenes; these are really good; there is one on foot that features some impressively gymnastic moves as Ling goes over and under a number of obstacles as well as a scene involving a tuk-tuk chase with lots of crashes and yet more fighting. Had this been a Hollywood film there would undoubtedly been a romantic subplot between Ling and Muay but here there is none of that; she is just a friend of his cousin who gets involved in some of the action; this makes a refreshing change. Tony Jaa is really impressive as Ling; he clearly is among the great martial arts actors. The rest of the cast are pretty good too. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of martial arts movies.These comments are based on watching the film in Thai with English subtitles.

Just as Japan is now the place to go for quality horror films that are genuinely frightening, so it seems Thailand is the place to look for action movies that are genuinely thrilling. ONG BAK, we can only hope, will be the first in a new wave of spellbinding Thai movies which go that one step further that Hollywood films never seem to reach. It's a poorly-plotted movie, with a routine storyline and a pretty mundane script; the characters are at best two-dimensional. So why the five star rating? Well, to speak plainly, ONG BAK kicks backside. In fact, it kicks major backside. After the initial set-up (a slow thirty minutes), action scene after action scene is piled on, perfectly choreographed sequences that will have any male viewer whooping and cheering. Tony Jaa, it seems, is the new Bruce Lee, and his physical prowess in this film is amazing. He's complimented by a pretty but vacuous female accomplice, and 'George', played by a top Thai comedian on hand for the comic relief.Much has been made of the "no wires, no CGI, no stuntmen" tag line. It works. Jaa performs everything you see him do on screen, whether that be jumping through barbed wire or being set on fire. He really does take the brutal hits and punches aimed his way, and by the same gesture, he delivers all the moves we see him perform too. Certainly the film bears resemblance to the Bruce Lee flicks of old, whilst some of the plot seems to come from Van Damme's A.W.O.L. No matter. All you need to know that the action here is fast-paced, as realistic as it gets, and absolutely violent.The set-pieces are too numerous to mention, and by the time the film hits the final run, it's just carnage after carnage. There are guys getting kicked off motorbikes, scenes of Jaa running on top of people's heads, jumping over and under moving cars and much more. Various fights in rings and arenas see him battling a variety of foes, some good, some not so good. My favourites are the 'object' guy, a hulking Westerner who uses anything that comes to hand in his fight: bottles, tables, even a live wire; then there's the injection guy, a really evil-looking sod who pumps himself full of painkillers (or steroids, not sure which, it doesn't matter) to give our hero a good pummelling.The direction is spot-on, with use of repeats and slow-motion just where they look best, and the fights are something we've never seen before. Unstaged, fluid and offering 100% realism; that's the order of the day, and what action! The ending is the best, set in a cave, as we see Jaa battling numerous opponents. Things get really nasty with a sadistic dead-eye villain who uses a rusty saw on our hero before breaking a few arms. It's brutal, but not as brutal as Jaa's rematch with the injection guy. There's an elbow-on-head crushing with a spurting blood cloud that even beats Sonna Chiba's STREET FIGHTER for sheer crowd-pleasing viciousness. Enough has been said in this review; all that's left is for me to recommend any true martial arts fan to go out and buy this movie straight away. It'll take pride of place on your shelf, I promise.

I saw RZA present this movie in a commercial once so decided to check it out when it came out. And I can see why RZA who is a fan of martial arts movie wanted to present this movie. The fight sequences when this kickass flick came out was just about second to none when it came to the fight sequences. And it's brutal like muy thai movies should be. This is the flick that boosted Tony Jaa to stardom. His acrobatic and muy thai martial arts skill really shines through. There is a female lead in this I thought was annoying and didn't add much to the story at all. But I guess they just wanted a female lead. The story is simple a statue of head of ong bak gets stolen in a rural village and Ting(Tony Jaa) leaves the village in order to retrieve it. And there are fighting and chases along the way to retrieve the artifact. The story maybe simple but it flowed very well with the action scenes that are really cool to watch. And can tell the stunt people and Jaa put their bodies on the line to make this movie. Overall this is the movie that boosted muy thai onto the movie screen and is a very entertaining martial arts flick.8/10