Wise Kwai’s review of ‘Fireball’

Wise Kwai’s Thai Film Journal has posted a detailed review of Thai basketbrawler FIREBALL, an action movie released in Thailand on January 29th that attempts to combine brutal ONG-BAK-style screen fighting with the sport of basketball. The reviewer found the idea compelling but not the execution.

It’s a brilliant concept, ripe for the gritty, no-holds-barred, no-wires, no-CGI kind of martial-arts action film that fans have been clamoring for more of since the original ONG-BAK in 2003.

Unfortunately, FIREBALL isn’t it.

It breaks the rules of good filmmaking.

Every single action scene is marred by that bane of martial-arts films — shakey cam and zoom-lens cropping. The camera is constantly shifting around, so much that it’s stomach-churning. And the framing is so tight it’s difficult to get a sense of the action, of who’s being hit and who’s doing the hitting. It’s too bad. Because otherwise, FIREBALL could have been great.

To read the rest of the review head over to Wise Kwai Thai Journal.

Tags: Muay Thai