Title: Elephant White
Directed by: Prachya Pinkaew
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Djimon Hounsou and Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul
Running Time: 90 minutes, Rated R, Available on Blu-Ray
An assassin is hired to kill sex slave traders who murdered a girl in Thailand. Djimon Hounsou is Curtie Church, the assassin and Kevin Bacon is a sly arms dealer Jimmy the Brit.
One of the most excruciating scenes besides watching Hounsou repeatedly shove a gigantic dirty rag into a Thai prostitute’s mouth as she’s going through heroin withdrawals is hearing Kevin Bacon’s version of a British accent. What the hell happened to Kevin Bacon? He used to be a bankable actor, but now he’s fallen into the pit of direct-to-DVD despair along with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Christian Slater.
Director Pinkaew is best known for the cult favorite Ong Bak, which was a great film. Tony Jaa was basically unknown until he was in Ong Bak. Hiring big name actors does not make for a better film. Since the venture to western audiences didn’t work this time, Pinkaew should maybe consider going back to his forte.
This film seemed heavily influenced by Leon: The Professional, however the allegedly 14 year old girl Mae (Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul) doesn’t want to be trained to be a hitman, but wants to save Curtie’s soul by spouting Buddhist mysticism. The paranormal twist at the end along with the life message was kind of a groaner and I would not watch this film again. The action was far from spectacular and the script was completely bland. I think it was possible Bacon & Hounsou did this film to spread the message of anti-child prostitution and human trafficking, but was it really worth it if nobody sees it? As long as they feel good about it I guess.
Action: D
Acting: D
Story: F
Total Rating: D
Reviewed by JM Willis