'Striking Rescue' (2024) Movie Review

Tony Jaa. Muay Thai. Revenge. Bone-breaking action. Any one of those terms is likely enough to entice most of us to watch a movie. If we’re being honest, we’ve all watched movies for less. Combine all those elements, however, and you’re onto something. Which is exactly what Striking Rescue does. The latest from director Cheng Si-Yu (the woefully underseen Tai Chi Master, which you should also seek out if you haven’t), is 100% the movie it looks like, and though you’ve seen this many times before and won’t find any surprises lurking around the corner, it’s 100% the movie it looks like in the best possible way. 

 

Striking Rescue finds Tony Jaa working at the top of his game. Just in case anyone forgot, he’s here to remind us that he’s one of the best to ever do it. It’s been 20+ years since Ong Bak and Tom-Yum-Goong, but this feels like it comes from the same era. The fight choreography is wild and inventive; flying elbows, stylish slow-motion double-knees, and brutal acrobatic kicks abound. This is the sweet stuff that makes the hearts of action fans worldwide soar with joy. Jaa is electric and hasn’t lost a step on screen; it feels like the first time we ever saw him.

 

[Related Reading: 'Triple Threat' Movie Review]

As stated, the plot is…familiar.  Jaa plays Bai An. Within two minutes, drug dealers murder his wife and daughter. He, in true cinematic fashion, sets out on a mission of revenge, battling his way up the criminal ladder until he finds the people truly responsible. This main thrust is relatively simple, though it’s surrounded by a wealth of convoluted side stories. There’s melodramatic family drama between a businessman (Philip Keung), who may or may not be involved in the drug trade, and his young daughter (Chen Duoyi), and the criminal underworld is full of crosses and double crosses and betrayals and unlikely alliances of many stripes. (One of the comically villainous drug dealers has a cackling psycho henchwoman with silly colored glasses and a pair of hatchets, and that’s a hoot.)

 

Most of this narrative jumble is muddy background noise that never amounts to anything substantial and frequently slows the pace and momentum to a crawl. Fortunately, as is often the case in this kind of movie, it primarily serves as connective tissue for sprawling action set pieces. And while the emotional stakes rarely land, let’s be honest, most of us just came to watch Tony Jaa plow his way through machete-and-pipe-wielding goons, all eight limbs flying. In that regard, Striking Rescue delivers the goods. This is an incredibly fun martial arts action movie, fronted by an all-time great working at the top of his game, and is one genre fans need to track down. The beauty of Tony Jaa flying across a room and elbowing a dude in the top of the skull cannot be overstated and this is a prime showcase for his superhuman feats of absolute ass-kickery. [Grade: A]