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Fireball

Play trailer Poster for Fireball R 2009 1h 37m Action Play Trailer Watchlist
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15% Tomatometer 13 Reviews 38% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
Thai street gangs turn basketball into a violent underground sport.
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Fireball

Critics Reviews

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Derek Malcolm London Evening Standard 01/08/2010
2/5
The few women in the cast look aghast at what is going on. Go to Full Review
Ian Freer Empire Magazine 01/08/2010
2/5
This mostly routine Thai actioner mixes sports movie clichs, martial arts moves, melodramatic excess and gangster claptrap in the kind of movie Van Damme made in the '80s. Go to Full Review
Trevor Johnston Time Out 01/08/2010
2/5
The clunking storyline is a real drag, and the movie is essentially hobbled because the nominal lead is a rock performer not a martial artist. Go to Full Review
Brent McKnight The Last Thing I See 07/14/2020
B-
For years now I've been staying that what basketball really needs is more spin kicks and flying knees. Go to Full Review
Edward Porter Sunday Times (UK) 01/15/2010
1/5
If fireball had an idealistic, Jimmy Hill-style commentator, he'd describe this film as a poor advertisement for the game. Go to Full Review
Philip French Observer (UK) 01/15/2010
The plot is a pretext for nonstop, bone-crushing mayhem of a mind-numbing kind. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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08/09/2014 Seen in Spanish on a nightbus: action scenes were OK, all the rest seemed pretty redundant. See more 03/27/2012 I enjoyed this movie. It's insane and extremely violent which may not be for everyone, but I dig it. You have to score a basket against Thai fighting basketball players. The critics didn't like it, but they're expecting good acting and storyline. That's not gonna happen with a lot of MA flicks. I don't need a storyline, or good acting! Just action for any reason! Good fights here! See more 10/18/2011 Shorten the pain, just watch the trailer. See more 09/30/2011 Good basketball/martial arts foreign film.. See more 09/28/2011 Fireball (Kristoffer Tabori, 2009) Fireball (Thanakorn Pongsuwan, 2009) There were two movies called Fireball released in 2009. One of them, directed by Kristoffer Tabori (a serviceable TV series director with two big-screen features under his belt), is a Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie starring Lexa Doig. The other is a Thai martial arts film about extreme basketball. I'll give you a few seconds to decide which of them is the better film. Now that you're done laughing hysterically, we'll continue by noting that the single keyword attached to the American film on IMDB is âpantiesâ?. And I have no idea why, despite watching the DVD version rather than the TV version. Which should tell you how much I remember about this movie. I remember, as I mentioned, that it stars Lexa Doig, whose appearance in a movie immediately sends it into the dumpster (viz. Jason X, her last big-screen appearance for a decade), and has to do with a big, dumb prison escapee (Aleks Paunovic from Wishmaster 4) who finds himself with pyrokinetic abilities. Screenplay was written by Kariag Wenman, who was responsible for such cinematic classics as Intermedio and Confined. Basically, you get what you pay for. On the other hand there's Fireball the Thai sports flick, and I am able to admit that my weakness for sports films (despite my general dislike of actually watching sports) probably accounts for my liking this more than a lot of people did. It, too, involves Tan, a guy who just got out of prison (Preeti Barameeanat) thanks to his brother Tai basically bribing him out. His brother, however, is now in a persistent vegetative state, and it's up to Tan to figure out why. Thanks to a lead from Tai's girlfriend, he starts hanging around in the same places, and is eventually approached by people who think he's Tan (they're twins) and want him to get back into playing Fireball, a combination of basketball and May Thai where anything goes and billions of dollars are exchanged in underground gambling rings. There's a pretty ridiculous revenge subplot, some cheesy acting, the obligatory woeful subtitles, and the balance of big fight scenes to actual plot advancement is tipped way over, but for simple turn-your-brain-off fun you can do a lot worse than this. Like, for example, Fireball. Fireball (Tabori): * Â 1/2 Fireball (Pongsuwan): *** See more tom k 08/27/2011 A definite guys film. Think basketball meets Fight Club. While the game/fight sequences are entertaining and extremely brutal, that's about all you get. The acting is passable, but ultimately the story is blah and we care nothing for the characters. Watch it for the action only and you won't be let down; if you go in expecting more, you will be disappointed. See more Read all reviews
Fireball

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis Thai street gangs turn basketball into a violent underground sport.
Director
Thanakorn Pongsuwan
Producer
Adirek Wattaleela
Screenwriter
Thanakorn Pongsuwan, Adirek Wattaleela, Kiat Sansanandana, Taweewat Wantha
Production Co
Phranakorn Film, Bangkok Filmstudio
Rating
R (Brutal Martial Arts Violence|Brief Sexuality)
Genre
Action
Original Language
Thai
Release Date (Streaming)
Dec 5, 2016
Runtime
1h 37m
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