Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker

A furiously choreographed martial-arts spectacle wrapped in a fumbling narrative.

Boston Globe by Wesley Morris

The Protector is about 84 minutes long, and only four of those minutes are devoted to plot.

Portland Oregonian by M. E. Russell

The Protector is the nuttiest movie I've seen all year, and I've seen the last 20 minutes of "The Wicker Man."

The New York Times

The Protector supersizes the formula of "Ong Bak."

The New York Times by Nathan Lee

The Protector supersizes the formula of "Ong Bak."

Entertainment Weekly by Marc Bernardin

It's silly, at times laughable, sure, but Jaa has a reckless, bone-cracking grace that transcends the film's triviality.

Austin Chronicle by Brian Clark

But while every expertly choreographed Muy Thai bout delivers, the film suffers from haphazard editing. Entire sequences of explanation are missing, as if Pinkaew made a 2 1/2 hour martial-arts film and then cut everything but the fighting scenes.

The A.V. Club by Nathan Rabin

Delivers a steady stream of cheap B-movie thrills, plus two positive messages for young people: Be nice to animals, and when in doubt, always aim for the tendons.

New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman

While the story's silly, the stunts, choreographed by Jaa and popular Thai filmmaker Panna Rittikrai, are spectacular.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey

The movie is a series of ever more elaborate fight sequences and increasingly more and larger opponents.

Variety by Derek Elley

Boasting the same refreshing avoidance of CGI and wire work as "Warrior," slickly made production (largely by the same team) is more consciously aimed at the international market, with its Australian setting and multilingual dialogue.

San Francisco Chronicle

A bad film with a great star and some truly amazing action sequences.

The Hollywood Reporter

A relentless focus on action over character and story will leave more mainstream viewers cold.

L.A. Weekly

Jaa has the skills for the job, and shows them off in numerous fight scenes; it's just a shame that the movie he's in is barely acceptable in any other respect.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

It's little more than a disjointed succession of kick-ass action scenes.

Washington Post by Ann Hornaday

Lives up to Tarantino's imprimatur, both in its cheesy grind house aesthetic and its occasional forays into brilliant, bravura filmmaking.

New York Post

This ludicrous Quentin Tarantino-chosen low-budget movie features choppy editing and an amateurish script, and it switches strangely back and forth between dubbing and subtitles.