Fireball

When I bought this movie from Amazon, it was mostly because of the cover and the costumer reviews I glanced through there. However, I did fail to pick up that this movie was about a weird combo of martial arts and basketball. Had I known that, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. And one of the major factors in the decision for buying it was that there are some really amazing fighting movies coming out of Thailand.

Now, having seen this movie, I sit here somewhat puzzled. The movie had a lot of fighting in it, as expected, and the scenes were quite nicely executed and brought on the screen. However, I do think the scene where one team was using metal pipes in the fight was a bit tame, especially because a lot of the time you could see that they weren't even aiming to hit the opponents with the pipes, they were just randomly striking at the air to make it look choreographed. That was sort of lame.

Then the whole thing with the basketball tournament mixed up with brutal fighting, well... That really didn't work out all that nicely for me. It was like a weird hybrid version of "Rollerball".

The story in "Fireball" is pretty thin, though I suspect that was to be expected of a movie of this caliber, as you watch this for the action and fighting, not the storyline and plot. Basically it is the story of a guy entering a brutal competition to raise money for his brothers brain surgery. And that is it, the rest is just action, fighting and violence.

"Fireball" is worth watching for the fight scenes, if nothing else, however, mind you, they are not on the same level as the ones seen in "Ong Bak".

The acting in the movie was alright, actually. I wasn't overly familiar with the actors and actresses here in the movie, but I do think they did do alright with their given roles and characters.

All in all, "Fireball" is an adequate movie if you are looking to be entertained in the way of constant action and fighting. However, if you like a movie with more depth and stuff to think about, this might not be the movie for you.

The idea of integrating two of my favorite sports of martial arts and basket ball sounds like action heaven!! But this movie is poorly executed. The performers certainly do what they can, but no matter how their acting performances are or martial acrobatics. It just doesn't get off the ground to involve or genuinely excite you. The cinematography is all over the place, leaving you confused about who is who or simply feeling queasy from the all the shaking and spinning camera angles. The martial arts and acrobatics is nothing that you haven't seen before, even placed with the basketball skills and setting. Even the emotional subplots aren't enough to get you connected to the characters to care about what happens to them in the brutal "life and death" basket ball courts. Better to spend your time watching the other quality Thai action movies like Ong Bak, Chocolate, Raging Phoenix and Bangkok Knockout...

Rather than Fireball: Muay Thai Dunk, this could have been more aptly titled as Firebrawl: Anything Goes, and I mean that in a nice way. We know enough of how sports and martial arts can coexist in movies, either in comical fashion like Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer, or played in a more deadpan, idol-movie like manner with the Jay Chou vehicle Kung Fu Dunk. Joining their ranks is this latest action film directed by Thanakorn Pongsuwan, which fuses an illegal underground basketball league, and Muay Thai fighting.

For those who want to organize their own tournament, here are the extremely simple rules as explained in the movie. It's your standard 5 on 5 basketball on a full length court, except that when the whistle blows, you can brawl with your opponent immediately, which makes it something like a WWE Royal Rumble, only faster and more brutal. To win, you still have to put the ball into your opponent's goal/basket (it's still basketball after all), but it only takes one dunk to win. Either that, or the team with the last man standing will be the victor. Killing your opponent is allowed, but only within the court (anything outside equals to punishment for the team), but there's no replacement players allowed as you progress through the stages. Which means survivors get to split more cash between them, but suffer from numerical disadvantage. Weapons are optional too.

Which makes the film perfect as an all out actioner, and Pongsuwan doesn't think twice about indulging the audience into detailed, well executed fights which take precedence over a decent game of basketball. While watching the film I felt it was a throwback to the 80s Bloodsport type of movie with gladiators battling in an arena, sans plot and character development, where the focus is to let the fists and feet do most of the talking. That said, the fight sequences were nicely shot and tightly choreographed, though it seemed more like an all-out street brawl than sticking to Muay Thai principles. Fans of hard-hitting action will definitely appreciate the ring-side seat to all of the action here, which is relentless in pace and powerful in execution.

Story-wise, it tells of the tale of Tai (Preeti Barameeanat), who has recently been released from prison because twin brother Tan got him out of jail by raising required funds for bribery, but at the price of fighting for his life in a coma at the hospital. Tai learns from Tan's main squeeze Pang (Khanutra Chuchuaysuwan), who provides a cursory and unnecessary romantic angle, that Tan often got himself badly knocked up, and discovers that his twin was actually knocked comatose by an opponent in a Fireball tournament. So like a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, Tai adopts Tan's identity, and finds himself looking for a team to join for the tournament, seeking revenge.

Enter Boss Den (Phutharit Prombandal), who recruits Tai's Tan into his Fireball team, led by captain and best fighter of the lot Zing (9 Million Sam, yes you read that right!), with Muk (Kumpanat Oungsoongnern), K (Anuwat Saejao) and teenager IQ (Kannut Samerjai) as the rag-tag, hastily assembled team with trust issues amongst one another, and personal issues, each from the doldrums of society, mercenaries for hire if you like, eyeing that prize money at the end of the rainbow in order to lift their lot. Throw in some match-fixing potential, which is de-facto in any underground fights, and nasty opponents with no qualms for un- sportsmanship behaviour, and you're all set for a non-stop action film where the drama in between becomes an excuse to glue the multi-faceted fight scenarios together. One of the best involves a training sequence where the boys play a friendly in and around a narrow and cramped apartment block, resembling a parkour-yamakasi piece.

Given knowledge that a prequel will be made, I can't help but to think that this film could end up as the "middle" movie, since it ended the way it did with doors opened for a sequel, and of course the story of Tan provides ample room for scenes before the opening shot here. The players too are likely to be similar for the prequel, and it could follow John Woo's A Better Tomorrow where you can bring back the key actor from the excuse that we're looking at the twin / likeness resembling relative, which this film had all set up, and set subsequent movies back in time too.

That said, as a basketball-type movie, Fireball would not muster any merit for lay-ups and slam dunks. But as an action film, then yes, it will satisfy any action junkie who misses the good old days of no holds barred fights, multiplied by the number of players on the court all happening at the same time.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

The Thais are fast taking over the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese in terms of producing the most acclaimed martial arts films in the heart of their home countries, without the aid of any Hollywood CGI or props to spruce them up. We've had Tony Jaa in the Ong-bak films delivering his breath taking visual displays and now we have this less successful effort from director and co writer Thanakorn Pongsuwan, focusing on some competitors in an underground interfusion of basketball and muay thai, that obligatorily forgoes the use of a decent plot and unhammy acting. Sadly, it's also just never any fun, the close ups on the fights and their sheer relentless nature proving more distracting than entertaining and it all ends up feeling like it's really dragging on. Some fun here and there, but generally as much fun as a 'fireball' in the gut. **

Theres nothing else really to see in the movie, consant fighting from start to end!

Its ok, but i also didnt like too fast camera movement and changing angles all the time .it doesnt seem realistic and i got tired at some time. Too much fighting in the dark. Someone should see it only if they wish to see a full only battle movie.