Jailbreak

"Jailbreak" is your run-of-the-mill martial arts movie: we get our heroes (instead of just the one, here we have a team of 5), an 'of course things are going to turn sour' set-up (Prison Break!), heaps, but heaps of bad guys bent on destroying the good ones, fighting non-stop and a plot that has been knocked-out by some random flying kick. And while it doesn't bring anything new to the table, it does its job and delivers nicely choreographed fighting scenes, with some nice touches, and some silly humor to keep things chugging along (like one of the good guys not joining a fight because he is trying to light his cigarette).

It won't make you think, but you won't, probably, be bored either.

I wasn't sure what to expect since it's the first movie from Cambodia that I watched and I am quite pleased with the experience. The photography and general production are excelent and I'm not kidding. Even the main cast acted quite well and really good at martial arts performance. I believe that use of a music score could improve a lot the experience. The story works fine just it didn't focused in a clear B-class development and something more serious in action. However, totally recommended to enjoy an entertained martial arts movie.

In Cambodia, the police arrests the gangster Playboy (Savin Phillip) since they believe he is the leader of the Butterfly gang. However Playboy is only responsible for laundering the money and other crimes and accepts a plea bargain to disclose the identity of the true kingpin. The local police officers Dara (Dara Our), Tharoth (Tharoth Sam) and Sucheat (Dara Phang) and the French officer Jean-Paul (Jean-Paul Ly), who is visiting the Cambodia, are assigned to escort Playboy to the maximum security prison. Meanwhile, the mobster Madame Butterfly (Celine Tran), who is the true boss, puts a bounty on Playboy. The officers deliver Playboy and when they are leaving the prison, there is a riot and the inmates escape from their cells. Now the officers and the security guard that is guiding them have to fight to survive.

"Jailbreak" is a highly entertaining Cambodian film with non-stop action and magnificent choreography of the fights. The plot is very simple but the fights are excellent, and not only for fans of martial arts. In addition to the choreography that recalls a videogame, the film is attractive since it is witty and funny. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Note: On 04 May 2022, I saw this film again on DVD.

Title (Brazil): "Caos na Prisão" ("Chaos in the Prison")

This is a poor man's Raid in a way but that's not bad. If you're expecting plot twists and character development and decent acting and writing you're watching the wrong film. If you're expecting bone crunching action in the same way as Ong-Bak or Raid or similar films then you're in for a treat.

This film introduces the Cambodian martial art of bokator and it's very good in all action aspects. Surely the plot and dialogue leave a lot to be desired but the action is phenomenal for what seems to be a really low budget film. The choreography is exceptional and although the realism in terms of much people are being beaten up and stabbed and so forth and how quickly they get is not proportional I didn't find it bad.

In many ways this seems like a demo tape going to a producer saying, hey this is what we can do with pennies. Give us a bigger budget and we'll produce something even more awesome. And I sure hope so!

ps. I was impressed by Katsumi's martial arts prowess, you go girl!

Four cops escort a mobster into a high-security prison and must fight for their lives when a gang leader causes a riot to silence the prisoner.

It seems that the film was used only to invest in the fight scenes, possessive applications of martial arts, it becomes tiring for anyone who is not a fan of actions in the form of balloons and fights... I love films related to prisons, prisons and rebellions, though it sounded superficial to me, the touch of humor softens and humanizes, but does not sensitize and captivate enough... But because it is a Cambodian production, alternative with all its limitations, I value it a lot... S2.