The Kick (2011)
Prachya Pinkaew has been a pretty consistent martial arts director for me, not simply because of the talent of the fighters or the quality of the camerawork, but because he knows how to keep things interesting. For all the praise of the "The Raid" movies (though I have as yet to see the sequel) I had trouble with the repetitiveness of the fighting. Not being a connoisseur of fighting styles there's a limit to how long you can satisfy me with plain old punching and kicking. Prachya Pinkaew knows to mix things up by setting a fight on a tree or pitting the fighter against an army of skateboarders. Essentially he's working with the same philosophy which has served Jackie Chan's career so well: What matters is the choreography.
So, "The Kick" follows the trend of quirky premises. A family who are competing in taekwondo at the Olympics find themselves in trouble after they stand up to some organised criminals.
Every member of the family gets a chance to do some fighting moves, including the youngest who can't be older than 5.
Still while there is a fair bit of humour here and some cool little set pieces, the action isn't as interesting as in previous Prachya Pinkaew films and, even with Petchtai Wongkamlao, the comedy isn't really good enough either.
Overall "The Kick" is a sweet fun film and a highly enjoyable watch, but while it has a lot of potential, it seems like the family-friendly tone also holds it back from being as spectacular as it could have been.
C+