Spirited Killer (1994)

I saw this more than a decade back n i will never forget my experience with it. I had bought the dvd from a pirated dvd store for 50 rupees. Today being Sunday, i was shuffling my dvd collection n i noticed Spirited warrior dvd. Will never revisit it for sure. I went into flashback n thought about writing a review. The dvd cover had Tony Jaa n the synopsis sounded solid action/horror set in a forest. Read some positive reviews on imdb. Everything was misleading. The acting, direction, editing, everything was horrendous. The production value was nada. Even the martial arts fight scenes r boring. Regarding Jaa, well he is ther for few mins only n that abrupt ending was the icing on the cake.

Like most viewers new to the Tony Jaa phenomenon, I was under the impression that he would have a prominent role in "Spirited Killer", since this is packaged and marketed in the US as a Tony Jaa film. This turned out not to be the case, but it was still worth watching once.The film was obviously made with a tiny budget, but the real problem is the lack of real actors, the poor dubbing, the monotonous, repetitious nature of the story, and the monotonous, repetitious nature of the fights. The action is fluid, energetic, and intense, but the scenario never changes: vicious killing machine confronts, runs down and kills various parties in the jungle over and over and over. Various people show up and join in the fight against the killer, and they get killed too. The fights (to my Western eye) are like Roadrunner cartoons - they don't really "end", they just stop. What works for a 10 minute Chuck Jones animated fantasy becomes tiresome in a 90 minute feature film.I also have to admit that my potential rating of the film was influenced by the fact that I kept waiting for Jaa to show up, and he kept not being there. If I go back and watch it again sometime, I'll probably like it better for being what it is, rather than as a Jaa action vehicle.I got this DVD as a "Sprited Killer" trilogy for about $5, so I am satisfied with the bargain I stuck...but I will say you have to be a pretty indiscriminate martial arts fan to really enjoy this movie. Casual fans (or people who prefer high budget extravaganzas like "House Of Flying Daggers") will not be happy with this one.

Ong Bak and The Warrior King are two outstandingly good Martial Arts films. I saw this film in the shop and on the cover there is a huge picture of Tony Jaa. All the text on the cover was about: "Tony Jaa, Tony Jaa, Tony Jaa..." but as has already been said he is in this film for a few minutes. If this was any other product it would not be allowed to be sold under the trade description laws. The film itself is silly, the martial arts vary in quality and there is too much shooting and exploding for my tastes. If I could get my money back I would and I doubt I could ( with a clear conscience ) sell it on! If you are a Tony Jaa fan ... Give this film a miss

I like Tony Jaa, his skill is so impressive. I saw the DVD box for this and thought it was another Tony Jaa film. I was wrong. When he finally shows up his skill is shown once again but then ... poof ... he is dead and this crappy movie carries on. The cover has Tony Jaa, the synopsis has Tony Jaa, I really thought he would be in this more.I will say this for the film though: I thought they did a pretty decent job with the obviously low budget they had. The weapons were cool and I could only tell they were not real during the close up shots. The fighting was pretty good but I guess I went in expecting to see Tony Jaa going ape all over the screen and ended up seeing a low budget Thai film with so-so action.