Power Kids is, you know, for kids?

Seven-foot-tall actor/stuntman Conan Stevens is in Sahamongkol's kiddie action drama Power Kids. If you're not watching carefully, you might miss him.

In footage shot four and half years ago, Conan appears as a bodyguard for the U.S. ambassador. They are all dispatched rather quickly and mercilessly by machine-gun-toting terrorists led by Johnny Nguyen. Before he's shot several times, Conan gets to throw one of the bad guys over a counter.

At least he got some licks in. Another bodyguard actor, Greg Jorgensen laments that he "just got killed like some punk".

For Conan, Power Kids was the first Thai movie he acted in, and was the reason he came to Thailand. In writing about his experience, he hits on a point I hadn't pondered:

[A]s I watched it I have to admit it is a children's movie. In fact the only other people in the cinema when I watched it ... was a really old lady with a bunch of young kids.

Several central themes like the remote-control car (including the awesome camera work and heart-pumping music in the race scene) clearly show that the target market is small children, so I found myself rather bored at times watching the film.

I'll admit I kind of dug the RC racing scenes -- possibly some of the best filmed scenes in the movie.

Power Kids is rather violent though, which will be its main selling point. I think it exceeds the level of violence allowed for a G rating in the U.S., but it might be okay for a PG rating. I wonder how it would have been rated under the forthcoming Thai motion-picture ratings system?

Back to Conan, who says he might be leaving Thailand soon. He has a funny story about chewing betel nut as a pick-me-up because he was tired after watching Power Kids.