Born to Fight

This unashamedly mindless Thai action flick presents a radical alternative to Hollywood CGI: the insane stunt team. Boof! They fall off speeding container lorries. Thwack! They bop each other over the head with flaming logs. Crunch! They hurtle headlong off motorbikes. Sophisticated it ain’t, but on a Keystone Kops level their sheer physical commitment is not unimpressive.The plot is rudimentary: a team of Thai Olympic hopefuls is caught in the fray when their training village is captured by a drug dealer’s private army, which hopes to rescue its leader from custody. High-kicking sports skills thus come in handy in helping the plucky locals shake off their gun-toting oppressors. The team behind the martial arts spectacular ‘Ong-Bak’ keeps the mayhem on the go throughout, but the law of diminishing returns does set in as the action resolves into one seemingly endless fight sequence. Ultimately, excitement ebbs away, but it’s worth staying for the end credits revealing how they pulled off the stunts – with dedicated preparation and many broken bones.