Ong-Bak 2 (2008)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

Very Solid Blu-Ray Release From Magnolia.

I thought the story was over all good. It showed that Tony Jaa has range as an actor as we see him happy, sad, in pain, all other types of emotions through out the film. The plot is pretty much the basic revenge plot. It starts out with Tony Jaa's character as a child on the run and he's put into slavery. He is quickly set free by a group of pirates who in turn raise him as one of their own.

I give the video a 5. I know some will probably disagree with me because in some shots, the film looks soft and blurry. I've noticed these types of shots in two of Jaa's previous films; Ong Bak and Tom-Yum-Goong. I question if these types of soft shots are meant to be artistic or just a possible problem with film stock. But, to me, in some of the shots, it works well.

I watched the film twice with both Thai audio and then the English dubbing; both are in 5.1 DTS-HD. Both soundtracks are very nice and loud, they will not disappoint. When the action scenes are going on, you can hear the elbows hitting the head; swords clashing; people yelling out in pain very clearly. The beautiful score for Ong Bak 2 flows very nicely with the rest of the audio on the disc; it is not too loud nor is it too quiet. I give the audio a 5 out of 5.

Magnolia offers a nice amount of special features on this release; granted most are in SD, but informative none the less. We have a behind the scenes that shows the whole filming process; interviews with the cast and crew; HDnet introduction for Ong Bak 2; US theatrical trailer; Original Thai trailer; the Alternate Europa Corp edit of the film which runs at 88 minutes; coming attractions from Magnolia; and the biggest one on here is the trailer for Ong Bak 3. A word of caution, avoid the Europa Corp edit of the film as it removes ten minutes of footage from the film and places the opening credits at the end and adds a new soundtrack that ruins the intensity of the original Thai version. Also, the music on the end credits has been replaced with a horrible French Rap song.

I give Ong Bak 2 a 5 out of 5 overall. It is a fun martial arts movie to watch; it has action and drama. The video presentation is amazing as well as both audio tracks on the disc. It has a ton of bonus material worth checking out. I got it for the price of $13 and it is well worth it.