Description

Oh, no! Little Billy (not his real name) has a heart condition and it's up to his friends to take care of him while he's in hospital, waiting for a new one. This is horrible! But even worse, terrorists have just taken over the hospital where little Billy is awaiting care and if they aren't driven away, there's a good chance that little Billy is going to die! There's only one thing for four pint-sized friends to do—dust off those elbows and knees because the time has come to kick some grownup ass, muay thai style!

The latest offering from producers Prachya Pinkaew and Panna Rittikrai, POWER KIDS is to the duo's breakthrough hit ONG BAK what THE GOONIES was to RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK—a chance to prove that whatever grownups can do, kids can do just as well. Years in the making, POWER KIDS holds to the same all-natural stuntwork mantra that made ONG BAK such a huge hit. Rittikrai worked with the core quartet of kids for years, training up the four young then-unknowns—one of the female leads will be familiar to fans of BORN TO FIGHT and also starred in SOM TUM with Nathan Jones while POWER KIDS was in the works—until they were ready to perform all the bone-crushing stunts themselves. TOM YUM GOONG baddie Johnnie Nguyen plays the villain here but there's no doubt it's the kids and their skills that are the real stars. Smashing face-first through glass, launching themselves off walls for spinning kick attacks and delivering in-tandem flying knees, the children in POWER KIDS perform with total fearlessness and leave no doubt at all about one thing—he laws governing the use of child actors in Thailand are certainly much, much looser than they are here. Though geared very much as a children's film, bring children at your peril. After a dose of POWER KIDS, they'll be attempting backflips down the hall at home!

—Todd Brown