SnoopyStyle Peace talks about Katana is taking place in Bangkok. Kham (Tony Jaa) is living a quiet life in a small Thai village protecting his elephant Khon and others. He refuses to sell Khon. When Khon is taken, he goes to the trader who wanted to buy Khon only to discover his dead body and his two nieces seeking revenge thinking Kham is the one who killed him. Mark is now in Interpol and is there to help Kham. LC (RZA) is behind it all as he plans to stop the peace talks.The plot is impossibly convoluted. That's nothing new. The important stuff as in all Tony Jaa movies is the action. I remember the awe when I first saw his movie. It is all about the acrobatic real stunts. That's his brand. He may have lost a step or two but that is still the best parts of this movie. The motorbike gang section is pure energy and overwhelming joy. The problem are the CGI that taint the action. The effects are inferior to modern day effects. The 3D attempts at throwing things at the screen is cheesy. It's all reminiscent of the 80's style of revival 3D and the 90's style of CGI. It's bad and off-brand. The wirework is fine and he should work on that rather than the CGI.

Ari G Very disappointing. Sadly this sequel went like so many other movie sequels, and that is down the toilet. The movie basically failed to capture you in the beginning and I literally lost interest shortly after that. Fight scenes overall is below average. If you haven't seen the first one, then this movie may have been OK, but if you've seen the first one ... well, we both can shake our heads in disappointment.So, what went wrong? They went away from what brought them success in the fist movie. First movie gave us (somewhat) new, cutting edge stunt works, second movie just tried to recycle what they did (not the concept of giving something 'new'). First movie gave us unremarkable people who knows how to fight (which resulted in great fight scenes!). Second movie gave us (somewhat) flashy people who doesn't know how to fight. RZA, really? RZA?? Yayaying?? Which resulted in lame, sleep inducing fight scenes.So yeah, like many others have said, don't waste your time on this ... especially if you've seen the first one.

Hellmant 'THE PROTECTOR 2': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)Thai martial arts sequel to the 2005 hit 'TOM-YUM-GOONG' (known as 'THE PROTECTOR' in English). Thai superstar Tony Jaa returns to the title role of a fighter, now on the run from the law, who's trying to save his elephant (once again) from gangsters; that are trying to use it in a terrorist plot. Petchtai Wongkamlao also reprises his role as a police officer trying to aid the 'elephant protector'. It was directed by Prachya Pinkaew (who also directed the original) and written by Eakisit Thairaat. I liked the 2005 film quite a bit but this sequel I found to be pretty lackluster and boring.When Kham (Jaa) refuses to sell his elephant to a trader, named Suchart Vilawandei (Adinan Buntanaporn), it's stolen from him. He goes after Vilawandei, to get it back, when he finds him dead in his home. The trader's nieces, Ping-ping (Yanin "Jeeja" Vismitananda) and Sue-sue (Theerada Kittiseriprasert), see Kham standing next to their uncle's body and think he is responsible for his death. Soon the entire police force thinks Kham killed Vilawandei, as well, and Kham must turn to his old friend Mark (Wongkamlao), a police sergeant, for help. Mark has been chasing leads on a terrorist plan to disrupt the Kantana peace negotiations in Bangkok. Rza plays a crime boss involved in this terrorist plot.The movie has some pretty elaborate martial arts action scenes. Unlike previous Tony Jaa films though, there's a lot of visual effects and wire-work; it was also filmed in 3D. Although this is less impressive and pretty disappointing, to most Tony Jaa fans, I don't think it had anything to do with why the movie doesn't work. It's just a poorly conceived and clumsily executed film. The action scenes are cool but they get kind of boring, with almost no character development or story to go with them, and what little plot there is doesn't make much sense (most of the time). The villains aren't interesting or very threatening and Rza is horrible once again (like always). Jaa is still an awesome athlete and performer but he needs more talented people to work with than this.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: youtu.be/N3ywdecCULw

kosmasp Let's get this straight, this is not in the same league as "The Raid" (to name a recent entry) or "Chocolate" (a bit older one and obviously not the one starring Johnny Depp). But it does what it says on the cover. It delivers on the action/stunt part. Now if that is enough for you, you might be able to oversee other flaws this movie has (especially in the story department).So while we have characters returning (Tony Jaa's being one of them, the Elephant one other one), the story is completely forgettable. It doesn't really make much sense, something conspiracy or other. But that should not be important. It may take a while, but when the action kicks in, it does so with a bang (and a "vroom" or two). There are some very high risk stunts here (some outtakes can be seen in the credits after the end of the movie). Ask yourself if that is sufficient and act/watch accordingly