“Bangkok Adrenaline” is a Thai martial arts film written and directed by Raimund Huber (the writer of “Freerunner”), recommended to me by Paragraph Film Reviews months ago. My to see list is obviously long, but I’m getting there bit by bit. We follow a group of four (probably British) tourists – Conan, Dan, John and Mike – partying it up in Thailand. Unfortunately, they end up owing money to some very nasty people. With the deadline to repay it set in a week, they come up with a crazy plan: they’ll kidnap Irene Dawson, the preppy teenage daughter of the multimillionaire Harris Dawson and demand ransom.
But there are unexpected setbacks: Irene proves to be more feisty than anticipated; she falls for Dan since it’s hard for women in films to resist being afflicted with the Stockholm syndrome when their kidnappers are handsome hunks; most importantly, her daddy doesn’t really want her back. So in a turn of events the kidnappers become the targeted, having to now protect their initial victim. Mayhem all over Bangkok is to follow shortly…
“Bangkok Adrenaline” is here to show you some ass-kicking, and that’s all it does. The story, although not bad, is so poorly told I could somehow scarcely believe it. The “plot twist”, the father’s change of heart regarding his daughter’s rescue literally materialized out of thin air, so I had to rewind a few scenes back to see if I missed something. I didn’t. Only later in the film it’s explained, and his actions at the beginning still do not make much sense considering what’s happened later. Shrug shoulders, move on…
… and stumble upon atrocious acting. I know acting’s secondary in these flicks, but this wasn’t just bad, but really horrible. The only one who came up with a watchable performance was Gwion Jacob Miles who plays Mike. The rest are… ugh! Lead Daniel O’Neill, while impressive in the fighting department, was alright, but his acting could use some serious polishing. Also, the sexy Priya Suandokemai (teen Irene) could successfully portray a bitchy, spoiled brat on some Disney channel original “comedy” series, but that’s about it. OK, shrug again…
…and bash your head against – the humor. Or the lack of it, to be precise. “Bangkok Adrenaline” tries to be funny, but the jokes are, in a word, retarded. Like, god awful. Some do hit home, but most miss well wide of the mark if you’re older than, I don’t know, 10?
My last complaint goes to the tameness of the overall product. But then again, the violence is never graphic in these turbo-paced films – it’s full of those lightning fast but seemingly impactless kicks and punches, and nothing more. There’s also no nudity or titillation at all. Also, can you believe that all Dan gets for rescuing Irene and literally being willing to die with her during a moment of perceived certain death, is a goddamn kiss!? A kiss… on… the fucking… cheek! It once again goes to prove it doesn’t pay to be a nice guy.
But the ass-kicking is fine indeed. It’s, of course, the over-stylized type of martial arts in fifth gear where guys can take and deliver 23 visually attractive moves in a split second with little to no impact behind it. Well, at least there’s lots of it in the second half of this 90 minutes film, and it’s spread over many locations – warehouses, marketplaces, narrow streets, wide streets, rooftops, stairs, catwalks, even moving vehicles.
And I guess that’s what it is all about, right? “Bangkok Adrenaline”will vaporize from your mind in a few days. There are far better martial arts picks out there, like “Ong bak” or “District 13″. By better I mean overall; that is, in the actual fighting department “Bangkok Adrenaline” can definitely compete with them. Whatever the case, it’s a good way to spend 90 minutes having decent fun while exerting zero brain activity.
Rating: 6/10
loading...
Posted in 
Tags: 
Glad you guys got round to watching it, shame it didn’t score a bit higher! I loved it for the Friday night popcorn flick it was – and thought the action was crazy-good for a film with such a tiny budget (filmed/edited/and action itself).
The humour, I liked it but it’s very British / Carry On in it’s nature, which we’re used to over here.
Well, we’re from Europe so British humor is closer to us than American. I prefer British humor, for that matter. But I didn’t find much things British in this, to be honest.