The King Maker (2005)

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

No spoilers! I liked this movie! It is a kid's movie with an R rating, ha ha.OK, yes this movie is not excellent, but frankly it is not as bad as all these reviews say it is. I have seen many acclaimed movies that receive rave reviews that are not much better than this one. What is the difference between those movies and this one? This one has unknown lead actors and people are biased about watching movies with the lead roles not given to "star" actors. In my opinion the acting in this movie is not bad, just that the actors are not loved actors.Some have criticized the modern music and the fake British accents. I am really tired of the hypocrisy of these kinds of reviews. First they want the music to be "true to the time period" and then they want the Portuguese to speak perfect British English. Give me a break, there is not a British character in the whole film, why should any of them speak English well? The acting is not bad! It just isn't perfect! OK, granted the script does sound like they google translated it, the dialogue is awkward and sometimes doesn't really fit the character. But who cares? It is not an English film! I like the fact that they don't speak English very well. It gives it more authenticity as a whole. Why can't people stop their petty criticism and just enjoy a movie for what it is? I think that what people don't like is the R rating with no nudity or gratuitous sex. I can guarantee that if they showed some naked breasts there would be far less bad reviews altogether. Personally, I didn't miss it!

My DVD box calls her "Yossanadee Hassadeevicht," the movie credits bill her as "Yoe Yossawadee," and IMDb dubs her "Yoe Hassadeevichit," but by any name, a weed is a weed is a weed, so when Yoe's Queen Sudachan's head appears on a pike in the upper right corner of the final shot, viewers of THE KING MAKER will sigh that it's about time this dandelion was decapitated. This probably is one of the five most expensive Thai films ever; it's tragically comical that the producers did not spend the extra thousand to hire a professional loop group, opting to dub this sometimes visually stunning pix with pidgin English, instead. The only thing that could have made this effort more ludicrous would be to have Yoe waltzing with her hired ninja assassins to the strains of "I Could Have Danced All Night" from the far more accomplished THE KING AND I (which is also "based on a true story" from Siamese history).

THE KING MAKER will doubtless be a success in Thailand where the similar (but superior) 'The Legend of Suriyothai' set box office records. The film directed by Lek Kitaparaporn after a screenplay by Sean Casey based on historical fact in 1547 Siam has some amazingly beautiful visual elements but is disarmed by one of the corniest, pedestrian scripts and story development on film.The event the picture relates is the arrival of the Portuguese soldier of fortune Fernando de Gamma (Gary Stretch) whose vengeance for this father's murderer drives him to shipwrecked, captured and thrown into slavery and put on the bloc in Ayutthaya in the kingdom of Siam where he is purchased by the beautiful Maria (Cindy Burbridge) with the consent of her father Phillipe (John Rhys-Davies), a man with a name and a past that are revealed as the story progresses. There is a plot to overthrown the King and Fernando and his new Siamese sidekick Tong (Dom Hetrakul), after some gratuitous CGI enhanced choreographed martial arts silliness, are first rewarded by the King to become his bodyguards, only to be imprisoned together once Queen Sudachan (Yoe Hassadeevichit) reveals her plot to kill the king and son to allow her lover Lord Chakkraphat (Oliver Pupart) to take over the rule of Siam. Yet of course Fernando and Tong escape and are condemned to fight each other to save the lives of their families (Tong's wife and children and Fernando's now firm love affair with Maria) with the expected consequences.The acting (with the exception of John Rhys-Davies) is so weak that the film occasionally seems as though it were meant to be camp. The predominantly Thai cast struggle with the poorly written dialog, making us wish they had used their native Thai with subtitles. The musical score by Ian Livingstone sounds as though exhumed form old TV soap operas. But if it is visual splendor you're after there is plenty of that and that alone makes the movie worth watching. It is a film that has obvious high financial backing for all the special effects and masses of cast and sets and shows its good intentions. It is just the basics that are missing. Grady Harp

If there is one thing I cannot fathom, it is how people (the makers of the movie), can spend so much money on what is fantastic great scenes with hundreds of extras, use such beautiful sets (and they were fantastic all the way throug) and then make a movie that has NO character development.I suppose the storyline had to follow the actual history and I do not know how accurate that is but lets say it was accurate.The Priest sounded like a queen (gay queen) and the talk he gave Fernando just before the great battle sounded more like a lovers chat than a priest and a hero.As for the battle's. They were OK but for those who did not first read up on the history of the King of Siam, the battle just burst into the front of the movie with one funny little guy asking everyone to help and fight.The bottom line - THE MOVIE HAD NO COHESIAN. It was a lot of small pieces patched together with no pre-planning of any kind.What a pity. The sets, costumes, extras and even the special effects were so great but the movie sucked.Lastly. If I was the movie producer and I had gone to such trouble to create all the sets, get a very good sound track etc, I would have at least made the move double the length and taken the time to make a TRUE epic with proper development.