I'm just playing a hunch here, based on a trailer I saw, but on Feb. 11, keep your schedule open for Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior, starring Tony Jaa.

He's being hyped as The Next One with respects to martial arts movie hero-dom (he actually practices muay thai, a thai form of martial arts, also known as thai kick-boxing).

If the trailer's any indication, believe the hype.

What I love about great martial arts films are the choreography, the split-second timing and the physicality. Well-done, it's like watching extreme ballet.

I'm  reminded of when I saw Jet Li's Kiss of the Dragon -- a terrible film in most ways with some fantastic action and martial arts sequences. Li's character dispatched one bad guy by grappling with him in mid-air with his legs, flipping him upside down and then pile-driving him into the floor. Some guy sitting behind me jumped out of his seat, pointed at the screen and sputtered: "Man, that is fucking ART!!"

In a recent showing at the Royal Theatre of Fire Dragon,  the opening sequence was so breathtaking, so dazzling that when it was done, there was a simultaneous "oooh" from the audience followed by a spontaneous round of applause.

Ong Bak will probably be closer to Kiss of the Dragon than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in terms of general cinematic excellence, but I am willing to predict in this space that it will wow people based on the characteristics I've listed above.

I'll go further and say this film will make Jaa a star.