Elephant White (Review)

ELEPHANT WHITE
(5/17/11; Action, Thriller)
Kevin Bacon, Djimon Hounsou, Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul
SCR: Kevin Bernhardt
DIR: Prachya Pinkaew
MPAA: R for strong violence, language, sexual content, some nudity and drug material.
1 hour 31 mins

Sometimes you see a movie with established filmmakers and actors that goes straight to video and wonder why nobody had enough faith in the project to release it theatrically. But when a movie like Elephant White comes along, it’s pretty obvious.

Imagine Taken (2009) crossed with The Sixth Sense (1999) but with jittery camerawork, bad dubbing and awful accents.

Hounsou plays Curtie Church (no kidding), an assassin hired to avenge the murder of his daughter by white slave traders in Thailand. Bacon plays Jimmy the Brit, a wily arms dealer who sounds like Russell Brand and has a penchant for getting his ass kicked. Hounsou looks mildly embarrassed throughout, especially once we reach the “surprise” ending.

The movie attempts to justify its own sleaziness by informing us how bad human trafficking is. You bet it is. But I didn’t need to suffer through this misguided mess to figure that out. (Nu Image)

— DENNIS WILLIS

Author: Dennis Willis

Dennis Willis is an award-winning producer, TV host, producer, director, editor (he preferred Avid until a torrid affair with Adobe Premiere, and the rest is history), author and film critic (print and radio). Dennis produced and hosted the TV programs Reel Life, FilmTrip, Soundwaves (1983-2008) and produces the annual Soundwaves Xmas program. He is currently the film critic on KGO Radio in San Francisco, and a member of both the San Francisco Film Critics Circle and the Broadcast Film Critics Association.

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