Clash
(aka Bay Rong)
2009; directed by Le Thanh Son

With a story that is a duct-taped and spitballed mish-mash of action movie cliches loosely strung together in the hopes of creating a coherent and compelling plot, Clash doesn't exactly break the bank when it comes to moving the envelope of cinematic storytelling forward and upward. But, as for delivering solid and hard-hitting action sequences to an audience with hungry eyes, it definitely hits all of the bullet points of its' presumed intentions.

Clash's setup uses many tried and true tropes. Basically, the tough-as-nails Trinh (Veronica Ngo) and Quan (Johnny Nguyen) are leading a group of mercenaries in a mission to steal a laptop that contains the control codes to Vietnam's first satellite. A motley crew of competing organizations, from the government to the Triads, also want to get their hands on the computer, so, as you might expect, this is not going to be an easy job, especially once it becomes apparent that some of the mercs have allegiances that are outside of the realm of what a wad cold hard money can buy.

Frankly, Clash's exposition scenes aren't that much fun to sit through. That's not to say that they're badly done. In fact, the actors generally do a good job. It's just that they really don't have much to work with, and when that is combined with a running time that could have easily been trimmed by about ten to fifteen minutes (did we really need a Vaseline-lensed love scene that only manages to offer up a glimpse of side boobage?) at times, Clash loses some of the momentum that is so incredibly vital to creating an exceptional action movie.

Thankfully, much to the relief of this beleaguered reviewer, when the action does roll around, Clash kicks things up a couple of notches. Action-wise, Clash does suffer some of the same problems of Johnny Nguyen's previous effort as a star and action director, The Rebel, namely that there is too much in the way of repetition when it comes to the number and type of moves displayed. Sure, a well-executed triangle choke is fun to watch, but after the second and third time the move is presented, it start to lose some of its' punch.

Also, the gunfights could have used more polish. They're the sort of fire and forget while cranking up the bass sort of stuff that comes off more like a crutch, rather than innovation, in the action department. Still, overall, the action scenes here are really fun to watch, which goes a long way to making Clash a release that is well worth checking out, especially if you're a die-hard martial arts/action movie fan.

RATING: 7