Elephant White (2011)

Very Cool!!!

Load of rubbish!!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The country of Thailand has been engaged in Human Trafficking for years and has reached epidemic proportions. Now, director Prachya Pinkaew has taken a story written by noted screenwriter Kevin Bernhardt and posted it on the silver screen. " Elephant White " is a misnomer. Although it's name implies various things it's roughly translate to Spirit or Ghost. From this simple explanation audiences are introduced to our hero, Curtie Church (Djimon Hounsou) who is a professional and prolific Hit-man who has accumulating a sizable cash reserve from his clandestine trade. His impressive store of weapons is amply provided by his English arms dealer Jimmy. (Kevin Bacon) Nearing the time when he feels he can retire, Curtie is on his last assignment when he is enjoined by a fleeting but beautiful young girl name Mae. (Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul) During the completion of his final score, Curtie is annoyed by Mae who wonders why the Hit-man is killing in the first place. Curtie plainly explains it for the money, the girl informs him that other Bad men need his expertise and brand of justice. Curtie thereafter sets out to stop the Traffing of child prostitutes by eliminating those who deal in human flesh. With Jimmy's endless source of arms the movie escalates into high gear with numerous and explosive action scenes, while the philosophical reasoning is elusive. Still it is a good film, despite the low caliber actor in the lead role, Bacon is relegated to a subservient part but manages to keep the audience's attention while the movie makes it's obvious point. Human trafficking is still a lucrative trade in Thailand and will continue until it's ambivalent government takes action. Recommended, but troubling to view. ****

Sometimes a straight to DVD release can slip under the radar and become a highly under-rated and cult hit. 'Elephant White' does not fall under this category. Djimon Hounsou stars as professional hit man Church who is contracted to avenge the murder of his client's daughter. Alongside is Kevin Bacon, an arms dealer known as Jimmy who assists Church while he tracks down the men who committed this terrible act.The horrific abomination that this movie is seeps through from the very start where subject matters are introduced and dealt in truly sleazy ways. One being the a side story revolving around teenage prostitution that puts no effort into showing how revolting it truly is but merely using the dark subject and trivializing it to push the plot forward. The character development barely changes from what they all originally were. Church remains a destructive force, merely dispersing people feeling no remorse or consequence for his actions. It would be understandable if the film was trying to remain a bland action film but it feels as though it's constantly trying to push out some awareness to something but failing in every sense due to terrible direction from director Prachya Pinkaew.All these points are nothing compared to the absolutely stale performances that are woven within this destructively vile film. Notably the worst performancethat Kevin Bacon has done in his career. He brings across his own take of a British accent, which teeters between that of a southern Englishman and an Australian. Accompanied with this is his Keith Richards impersonation he adds to the mix, which brings it to the point that you actually want to avert your eyes. Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul stars in her first role as Mae, a 14-year-old teenage prostitute and after this performance it wouldn't be surprising if it was her last role. She comes across and whiny, annoying and self centered, which could all be down to poor direction but that would not change the fact her character was not believable or easy to relate to.There is absolutely nothing to take from Elephant White, aside from a semi-enjoyable sniper segment but even after that you'll have a sour taste in your mouth just for even thinking there was something enjoyable to take away from this film. It's dripping in filth, un-moral subject matters and bland, annoying characters. Truly one of the worst films in recent memory that nobody should have to endure.

Very very unfair reviews. Kevin Bacon made a super job of the accent. Just because you're not used to seeing him do an English accent does not mean it is bad. Actually it was quite good. Overall the acting was good and the action scenes where good. The story line was good and the ending was good. What more do you want! Blood? For people who visit Bangkok or knows anything about day to day life in Thailand it adds entertainment for sure. Amalgamating Asian casts for western audiences is probably the hardest exercise in the film industry until we get another Bruce Lee. This film is not about martial arts at all, contrary to many posts here. The last film that tried this Bangkok dangerous failed miserably and I can assure you this film comes to the rescue in that department. Overall entertaining and well put together.

OK I read the other reviews of this film before I decided to watch it, and to be honest I really don't know what the people who gave this film a really bad review, are talking about. I mean alright it was not an Oscar winner, but come on it wasn't a bad film, in fact I enjoyed it. The action scenes were shot well, and the dialogue while not fantastic, it was enough to keep you interested. Moreover, the story line about human trafficking and child prostitution is a one which is very real and about time more is done to tackle it in the real world, anyway the twist at the end of the film was surprising and completed the well rounded story. I have to say that Djimon Hounsou is a fantastic actor and did not disappoint in this film, Kevin Bacon was alright as well apart from the strange accent ( I actually thought my speakers were broken when he first began to talk !, I am from the UK and trust me no one talks like that here !). I was also impressed by Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul, who I thought acted really well and played a really good character, Mae and I hope to see her in more films in the future.So would I recommend this film, well the answer is yes, it was an action packed film with a good story line and good acting, and more importantly the bad guys get their asses kicked, which is something that we don't really see to much of nowadays.