Rebirth (2011) Reviews

• I thought it was decent..

  WonWaiWai2013-04-13

  This is my first review so it'll be somewhat crude, but I'll say what I thought of the film. The plot is somewhat mediocre at best; hero survived a fatal shot when he was a child, lived in seclusion, and now he's being hunted down by his parents' murderers. The reason for him being hunted down is quite unclear to me, since he clearly remembers nothing from his childhood, and I had a feeling if the villains left him alone, he'd have left them alone. Still, moving on with the actions; I thought there were plenty of actions and the skills Jon Foo showed are quite on par with other Thai martial art films I've seen. What I liked is that they didn't "soften" his actions. Since he can't feel pain, or most normal feelings I think, he beat 'em up real good. Acting-wise, I'd prefer if they'd all speak Thai. I don't mind reading subtitles. Having non-native speakers speak in English (not so fluently) is kind of distracting. The movie would've been better otherwise. Then again, I don't know how it would fare if you have the lead speak in broken Thai (Since I'm not sure if he's fluent in it. We only heard him asking for directions. Anyone could have). In short, take it for what it is. A martial arts film, and it'll be enjoyable enough.

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• Great Asian Netflix Watch

  king86542013-08-06

  Alright, so it wasn't a triple-a production movie. Throughout the movie I loved the filmography, story, and character development. I'm all about obscure netflix foreign movies, and this was a very entertaining, excellent ending movie. While many give it low ratings, from someone who only watches foreign movies on netflix, it was a blast to watch. Great story, while very typical, but it progressed through the movie and character developments where obviously seen, and felt. The ending was one of the best foreign movie endings iv'e seen, obviously minus the classics, but it is well deserving above a 4.5. I'd say an 8/10 is an adequate rating for this movie. Great action scenes, the main actor obviously has tremendous martial arts skills. Reminded me of a tony jaa or donnie yen martial arts, which are great to watch

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• for martial arts fans

  tatsu20502014-01-25

  Other people said enough about the language issues, silly story and bad acting. As a fan of good martial arts action those parts are not thaat essential, so let's talk about the action. It's not the pinnacle of martial arts movies but, taking into account how high the bar has been set by Ong Bak and The Raid: Redemption, you can still call it pretty damn good. For the most part there is no shaky cam. When shaky cam is used it's not for making the action look faster and harder but rather as stylistic means for the scene. Every fight scene is different. The style of choreography varies a bit, the stage is never the same (from locations with almost no room to fight to completely open street) and also the directing is never completely the same. For some scenes the latter works, for some it does not so well. But you definitely won't get bored. With a bit of luck the dry comments from the main character might even hit your humor. The emotionless way he delivers a couple of lines made me giggle hard a few times :).

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• Jon Foo has great potential

  dcboyz222013-08-02

  This movie kind of surprised me. As an avid fan of all things martial arts , I must say I did not walk away disappointed in this movie. here is my grading for the movie: Acting - 4 out of 10 Writing - 3 out of 10 Plot - 3 out of 10 Atmosphere - 5 out of 10 Directing - 6 out of 10 - mostly because they allow the user to see most of the action, rather than the shaky cam obsession in America. Action - 8 out of 10 Yes, 8 out of 10. Sure, Ong Bok, The Protector, The Raid, Ip Man, etc. are way better but this movie tries its hardest to emulate those films as best it can while also distinguishing itself. I found it refreshing that the good guy actually gets hit in this movie and takes a very serious beating at time - something most martial arts movies suffer from; the "no one can touch me even though there are 20 of them" mentality. This guy gets his butt kicked but does manage to dish it out. Jon Foo is an odd one for me. He sounds Australian at times, Irish in others, and looks Asian yet American at the same time. Very odd but it works for him. However, all that aside, he has some serious moves and has great potential. Is he Tony Jaa? No, not many people are. But he is damn good and someone I look forward to keeping an eye on. Definitely watch this movie if you are in the mood for a cheesy movie with some serious fight scenes in them. Jon Foo can dish it out - especially the fight scene on the subway. Overall, a 6 out of 10.

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• Uh..."The Room"-fu?

  crownofsprats2012-09-20

  First off, let me state that I paid honest cash for this. So I can trash it as much as I want. Basic plot here: an honest cop and his wife and kid are shot up by masked killers. The boy survives a bullet to the dome, and is taken to a village (for his safety - and to learn bone-crushing martial arts). The bullet lodged in the back of his skull is apparently quite severe: we are told he'll "never be like others", and is expected to grow up a mute idiot. ...so he learns (American) English! Decent syntax and pronunciation - for a dorm-grade bro-cabulary. Though he understands Thai, and even asks for directions in it at one point, he just seems to prefer English. When asked, he always says (in crisp English), "you'll never believe me if I told you." Most of the others in this film speak English as well, so the more challenged audiences won't have to worry about all that unnecessary reading at this "foreign film". "Bah! Enough about linguism! How are the fights?!" you say, glowering. After all, the guy does learn the ancient arts of expert skull-bashing (in a weirdly sparse "temple training" montage), and quickly gets himself involved in the silly vengeance/gangs/corrupt police plot that takes up most of the film. Oh, and the guy is supposed to be autistic, sort of - whatever "no feelings and no pain" meant as a stage direction to Jon Foo. The fights - they aight. It's not groundbreaking stuff, and we've seen most of it in Merantau, The Raid: Redemption, and all the Tony Jaa flicks. Fighting sequences actually make up a good portion of the film, but they were lacking that extra oomph for the most part, and the silly blonde girl along with the rest of the terrible actors do a great job of distracting you from what could have been a somewhat enjoyable beat-em- up flick. The absurdly campish girl-gang belonged in The Last Dragon way more than they did here - the token tranny was horridly mannish and so unlike all the Thai ladyboys I've seen, I would have felt personally insulted were I of Thai origin. There's also a French guy, who chainsmoked a lot and acted like we were all supposed to recognize him or something. There was one noteworthy scene where the main dude is tightly surrounded by boxers and they all go to town beating on him. The camera, from inside the mêlée, captures in slow motion the hero making slight dodges, thereby causing all the boxers to miss and hit one other instead. Quite original! So 4/10, for the abundance of fighting, and for the fact that it was so bad it transcended that wall where excruciating becomes hilarious; some directorial decisions almost smelled of subtle barbs at Americans and the fact that the folks responsible had to cater to a foreign culture that (unfortunately) makes a large portion of the intended audience. I guess you're not supposed to 'read' martial arts flicks that deeply, though.

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