January 2010
<< Back

Fireball (18)
Posted 4th January 2010

Muay Thai Dunk should have equalled slam dunk martial arts actioner. Instead it’s just one big messily-assembled disappointment.

The story of one-man against the Triads (how original), Fireball sees ex-con Tai (Thai rock star “Bank” Barameeanant) enter the dangerous world of Fireball after his twin brother Tan ends up in a coma in the previous tournament securing the funds for his release.

In this world of no-holds barred illegal underground extreme mixed martial arts basketball, Tai seeks out the man responsible for his brother’s condition in order to exact bloody revenge whilst simultaneously earning enough cash to pay for the expensive hospital procedures required to keep him on life support.

Yes, the story really is that Van Damme derivative. But then you don’t really go to see these sort of martial art genre films for the story do ya? No, you go for the all-out kick ass action. Of which this does have some, it’s just difficult to discern exactly what’s going on thanks to Thanakorn Pongsuwan’s chosen style of direction. Which is absolutely criminal when you consider some of the superhuman feats of ability (probably) on display. Prachya Pinkaew (Ong-Bak / Warrior King / Chocolate) understands you don’t over-edit the fighting exploits the eye wants to see, going so far as to bloody repeat the best bits on occasion. Obviously Tony Jaa learnt his lesson well, avoiding shaky-cam too on Ong-Bak 2. Shame it passed Pongsuwan by...

However there is some good stuff in small snippets that means Fireball is saved from one-star ignominy, the most notable of which is a central Parkour scene up-and-down and through-and-over a dilapidated tenement block that shows District 13 – Ultimatum how to properly showcase free running. 9 Million Sam (wicked name) as team captain Zing also shows he’s got the skillz to pay the billz and will undoubtedly find more Muay Thai moshing coming his way off the back of this impressive physical and emotional performance.

Of course that positivity is weighed out by a truly atrocious ending that (without wanting to give too much away) basically puts the scores back to zero so we can start all over again in a sequel (should this do well). That’s up in the air however, whether it comes back down to the ground a reality courtesy of a well-executed alley-oop or crashes to the court off the backboard remains to be seen, but if they get another go then next time all involved really must try harder to reach the standards laid out by better fight promoters before them.

**