The Protector

A member of an ancient order guarding the royal elephants of Thailand (Tony Jaa) pursues the men who stole two pachyderms all the way to Sydney, Australia. From the star and director (Prachya Pinkaew) of Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior, for those who consider that a recommendation. The rest of us will wonder how even the most ardent martial-arts fan can stand this—it seems made up of three different movies, none any good, fed through an airplane propeller and reassembled in random order (and maybe it was; there are no fewer than five writers in the credits). The soundtrack is a hodgepodge of subtitled Thai and badly dubbed English, and the movie serves as an example of what passes for entertainment in some parts of Bangkok. Of America, too, evidently: This mess is “presented” by Quentin Tarantino.