My Best Bodyguard | มาย เบสท์ บอดี้การ์ด [ Movie Review ] ★1/2

The Pitch

The first time I saw My Best Bodyguard poster in a Thailand cinema, I can't help but noticed that Shawn Yue is in a Thai Film. The next thing that caught my attention was the leading lady on the movie poster. Not exactly the type of actress that grace most of the Thai action flicks posters these days. There's an aura about her that stood out and upon some research, it turned out that she is the princess of Thailand.

The very next chain of thought would be whether did she use her royal connection to get this film made. Will she have the on screen charisma and/or looks to pull off the leading role as an actress? Will it be a decent action flick or an excessive indulgence by the rich and powerful?

Shawn Yue's participation in this movie was totally forgotten at this point. But it's interesting to note that MediaAsia had "loan" him to this project and will be taking charge of the Asian countries distribution of this movie outside of Thailand.

The Plot

The NSSD (National Security Special Detachment) is facing a major crisis in Thailand. There's a deadly virus outbreak and the Americans are threatening to interfere by taking over the crisis control. Jate, the section leader of NSSD promised that he and his team would resolve this issue within a week.

My Looks Could Kill Too

Meanwhile, a hotshot reporter Nicha (Ubolratana Rajakanya)  is doing her own investigation on the matter. An infected doctor seeked her out and gave her valuable information that could expose a foreign pharmaceutical company dirty secrets. Before she could get more information, the doctor was assassinated by Thud (Shahkrit Yamnarm).

Nicha decided to press on and confronted Shawn (Shawn Yue), the young and successful businessman who is leading the foreign pharmaceutical company. The ambitious business man has no qualms in sacrificing the weak for profits and medical advancement.

She later discovered a number of Thai citizen were used as lab rats to test out the virus. The first bunch of infected individuals were assassinated by NSSD in an attempt to control the outbreak of the virus while the remaining five were held captive by the pharmaceutical company. Her investigation unwittingly caused her to captured by Shawn's henchmen and they decided to inject her with the virus.

We don't need to shoot them up close

While waiting for a possible antibody from one of the remaining few, the NSSD suddenly appeared to bust Shawn's  illegal business dealings. The evil doers managed to send the infected personals away with NSSD on hot pursuit. Unexpectedly, the assassin, Thud who killed the infected doctor appeared to rescue the infected personal.

It turned out that Nicha's father was a Colonel and Thud works for him out of gratitude. Not only that, the Colonel also had past dealings with this form of virus and told them that the antidote might be in one of the infected personals. All they could do was to sit and wait for the one to appear. It's not an easy task as the infected personals would like to contact their love ones in case they are not so lucky to survive this experiment. NSSD and the foreign pharmaceutical company are also keeping a look out for this infected personals. 

The Perspective

I am deaf to all your criticism

First and foremost, what can one expect when the story was written by a person that uses the initial C.R.A.B as the writer credit. One heck of a bad story flow and characters motivation. In another word, it's CRAP.

If the plot above sound pretty convoluted and patchy, that's because it written as how it was shown in the theater. Excessive characters and subplots that does nothing for the main story. One setup moves to another setup without the linkage in between, making one wonder if there's a missing segment between those two scenes. Needless to say, the setup for the main characters' motivation were sacrificed when the movie attempted to chew more than it can swallow and digest.

The other notable problem with this movie would be Shawn Yue's attempt to speak English for the whole duration of the movie. Shawn Yue's English was pretty bad as compared to the rest of  the Thai cast. It sound so unnatural and unclear that English subtitle would be a great help.

Stop or the Princess will Shoot!

Last but not least, the problem with My Best Bodyguard would be Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya involvement. She lacks the looks factor to carry the movie as the female protagonist. While there are other actors that do not relies on their looks and instead hone their performance to hook the audience, Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya lacks that edge to draw in the viewer with her acting. Her acting came across as stiff and too much of the royalty aura that make her character less convincing as a working class reporter. It certainly doesn't help when she filmmakers hired so many good looking male counterparts to star in this movie with her. It's simply a glaring distraction with the incompatible pairings.

In summary, My Best Bodyguard is a pile of crappy mess that going to top my bottom ten movies of 2011 list. The story was a dismay mess and tried to take on too much. Shawn Yue was out of element when he been tasked to speak in English. The action sequences in My Best Bodyguard was a tame affair that does not require any attention. I don't want to be rude but my take would be that My Best Bodyguard is a vanity project for Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya. The movie industry could be a very harsh place and if you don't have the X Factor, you don't have the X Factor. One could only wait and see if she will ever make another movie after My Best Bodyguard.

Coda

In veins of some great Asian action flicks, My Best Bodyguard went on to show the NG segments of this movie. In particular, it focused on an accident that happened when the princess was making an escape from the captive. It was a simple scene that accident should not have happened but it did and in all honesty, it looked like the princess had a rather nasty face first fall. The rest of the coda segment dedicated their admiration for the princess's preservation to complete the movie.

As an action flick coda segment, it also fall pretty flat like the movie. There's nothing impressive about the action sequences in My Best Bodyguard that needed glorification in such manner. In fact, if someone didn't trip and fall in a bad way, there might nothing to filled the length of the end credits.