Leofwine_draca
A US-made movie shot in Thailand, THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT seems to be something of a vanity piece for writer/star Rick Yune. Perhaps he was hoping to break out of the B-movie mould and become a modern-day Bruce Lee or something, I'm not sure, but this cheapjack rip-off of BANGKOK DANGEROUS was never going to do that for him.In fact, the wooden Yune is one of the most uninteresting things about the whole production. Yune seems to do much better when he's either in support or playing the bad guy, as he has zero charisma as the protagonist here. Still, the supporting cast are better, and there are a couple of nice turns from both Bokeem Woodbine and Keith David, although neither actor gets a whole lot of screen time.THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT is a typical B-movie action flick filled with shoot-outs and fight scenes, and as is usual the storyline comes second to the battles. Yune is a trained assassin who gets caught up in protecting a Jennifer Lopez-lookalike singer from a husband and wife assassin team (shades of MR & MRS SMITH). Sadly, the action is pretty poor, with dodgy choreography making things difficult to see, and there are only a couple of good fight scenes in the whole thing. It's clear to me that British director Jesse V. Johnson should stick to being a stuntman.
kankawin25013
The Fifth Commandment is an average action movie. Not so good and not so bad. In the good side, its action sequences is quite well at one point. The movie doesn't make suck cinematography like some action DVD movie which make me fretful even the crew has a limited budget. Its drama scene also very good indeed especially between the brothers. Rick Yune and Bokeem Woodbine can make sense to me because of their imperfect lives. The movie is very proper in how to mix action and drama scenes.Not only that but also how the crew make some thrilling things like the role of Max "Cool Breeze" Templeton. He maybe the bad guy who is the mastermind behind everything but at last, he is the really father who care their child so much! However, in the bad side. The Fifth Commandment has some unreasonable section of its plot. First, Miles Templeton should not died too fast. I actually expect when he died that he would come back surprisingly in the climax to help his younger brother, but my guess is wrong which make me unsatisfyingly.Second, the movie is over the top in many point! Not only police in the movie who was killed too easily (Even in the police station!!!) but also the scene which Chance was tortured by the police. Hey! the story occurred in Thailand. Why you put some foreigner in that scene rather than use all of them Thai people? OK! They maybe police at all but that's very corny about some guy who was tortured in Thai police station by Thai police and foreigner police! (I mean those police in the movie only, not in reality.) And the last one, they make Thai police's look so bad! To be killed like a piece of cake and their barbaric action in Chance's torture scene. (I want to complain about that because I'm Thai people!) About the cast, even I feel unsuitable about Rick Yune's leading role because of his look, but I grant him later because his action is fit with the role. Roger Yuan has a fit look as the villain, not too much and not less than the standard. He makes me remember about Mr.Hertz in Shoot 'Em Up who died so hard and looks nasty. Bokeem Woodbine and Keith David also fit their role as well. However, Dania Ramirez's role as Angel is a little hecticness.For the overall, the movie is OK. It can entertain you better than some action movie which has a suck plot and cinematography. I hope you will enjoy with The Fifth Commandment!
chicagopoetry
The Fifth Commandment (TFC) is the real deal. The action is fierce. The tension is explosive. The camera work is dazzling. This highly stylized exploration of ass whoop reminds us of A Better Tomorrow, one of the earliest John Woo films. That one wasn't perfect either, but it is in that imperfection, in that grit, that the beauty of it lies, and through that movie both John Woo and Chow Yun Fat were recognized internationally. The characters in TFC are hilarious in a comic book sort of way. This slam bam thank you ma'am action smack down is a fitting tribute to the great low budget martial arts films of the seventies and eighties. The litmus test for this movie is: did you enjoy Ong Bak? If you did, this isn't quite as good but you do not want to miss this bad ass whack fest. The Fifth Commandment is not quite The Killer or Hard Boiled, but, come one, what movie is. In its own right, this is a heavy duty no holds barred celebration of violence as a choreographed art form. Of course the plot is thin! It's not supposed to be Scent of A Woman, for crying out loud. An assassin hired to kill a Jennifer Lopez look alike doesn't take the job because it would involve killing his own brother so the people who hired him are now out to get him. Duh. Transporter 3, which has a similar plot, is a joke compared to this one. Kill Bill was only making fun of movies like TFC. Too bad it doesn't have a better ending. The last half hour drags on and ruins the entire experience.
ashsdarr
I was really mentally fatigued so i decided to spend the evening with something mindless, just dribble in fact. It turned out more than i expected but less than what i wanted it to be. Rick Yune if given a chance IE, left the writing to professionals and concentrating his efforts on his acting, has a real potential to be ranked amongst Chow Yun Fat and those type of actors, but his skill has to improve, as well as his close hand combat choreography. They attempted a hand to hand scene trying to pull off the Bourne and Asset fight off in the last movie, but it was too messy and not visually fluid like you would have expected. Clichéd dialogue and plot tears this movie to shreds. I mean Van Damme, Snipes, Lundgren have all exhausted this regurgitated storyline and see what happened to them. I must say the editing was OK for a bad movie. The girls were sexy as in any B movie, but i don't think we will ever see the lead actress (? Ramirez)again as her performance was so unrealistic and paper thin. She is an Ashanti type artist. She carries a 9mm in her stockings while she is in concert, i mean come on. I am an avid movie goer and this movie gave me an opportunity to exercise my movie analytic skills, eg what bad fight choreography looks like, or what a script should avoid etc etc. So much for a mindless evening, ironic isn't it.