To be honest, I expected awful production here, but what I got was much better.
The acting is zero, don't expect any believable emotions or anger, however the characters (their skills, their knowledge) are somewhat better than usual. I'm always embarrassed by the fact that always USA guy(s) save(s) the day in this kind of action movie, no matter if the story is located in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, India or China.
The action choreography is simply great. When I watched Ong-Bak few years back, that was a non-plus-ultra in melee action for me. If you consider that this movie is 22 years old now, you have to admit that they did a great job with the melee action scenes.
Sadly, the gunfighting parts are somewhere between ridiculous and hilarious. When a hand-grenade is exploding in 1 second, while a same grenade is exploding in 10 seconds in another place/scene (of course, just right there, when the bad guys come...) I had to wipe my tears off my face! Don't forget the scene with the machine guns set up in the brae of the 'russian' camp. The machine guns are firing close to blindly and the rate of successful kills are pretty high there.
And the final scene, when Scott Wylde drags the bad guy with the stolen army-jeep and slides him into the pool of crocodiles, that was non-sense: the bad Russian guy is pulling the jeep into the pool with his bare hands. OK, I say, let it be, I can take it; then Scott is coming with a rifle, shoots the jeep... The jeep explodes, but Scott lies to the ground only 3 seconds after the explosion! :)
If you can accept the fact that these scenes are ridiculous, you will love this movie as I did, because the melee fighting actions will compensate any of your losses.
The acting is zero, don't expect any believable emotions or anger, however the characters (their skills, their knowledge) are somewhat better than usual. I'm always embarrassed by the fact that always USA guy(s) save(s) the day in this kind of action movie, no matter if the story is located in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, India or China.
The action choreography is simply great. When I watched Ong-Bak few years back, that was a non-plus-ultra in melee action for me. If you consider that this movie is 22 years old now, you have to admit that they did a great job with the melee action scenes.
Sadly, the gunfighting parts are somewhere between ridiculous and hilarious. When a hand-grenade is exploding in 1 second, while a same grenade is exploding in 10 seconds in another place/scene (of course, just right there, when the bad guys come...) I had to wipe my tears off my face! Don't forget the scene with the machine guns set up in the brae of the 'russian' camp. The machine guns are firing close to blindly and the rate of successful kills are pretty high there.
And the final scene, when Scott Wylde drags the bad guy with the stolen army-jeep and slides him into the pool of crocodiles, that was non-sense: the bad Russian guy is pulling the jeep into the pool with his bare hands. OK, I say, let it be, I can take it; then Scott is coming with a rifle, shoots the jeep... The jeep explodes, but Scott lies to the ground only 3 seconds after the explosion! :)
If you can accept the fact that these scenes are ridiculous, you will love this movie as I did, because the melee fighting actions will compensate any of your losses.