Runtime: 101 minutes
Directed
by: Gareth Evans
Starring:
Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Joe Taslim, Doni Alamsyah
From:
Pt. Merantau Films
Now,
here is something I have REALLY been looking forward to for a few
months now. I remember hearing about it in the fall and there was
much in the way of good buzz for it. Then I saw some clips for it
online and it seemed to back all the strong praise. Then came the
wait for it to come to Central Florida. But it finally came on Friday
the 13th and boy did I have high expectations for this, an
amazing action/martial arts film from Indonesia, of all places, and
directed by a Welshman who happens to be married to an Indonesian
woman.
The
plot is rather simple yet effective: in Indonesia, a SWAT team in I
presume Jakarta go into an apartment building in a bad part to go
after a ruthless drug dealer; however, they have to deal with all of
the drug dealer's henchmen. That's really the entire movie. You start
off with the main focus of the SWAT team, Rama (Uwais) briefly
talking to his wife and then leaving to go to the SWAT truck and they
go to the apartment building. They then enter the building and all
hell breaks lose. Not to spoil anything but many sons of bitches die
via neck cracking, stabbings, and gunshots... on both sides.
This
movie is pretty awesome due to it being almost all action, with
occasional breaks to tell a story that has some twists and turns. It
is filmed in a great way; it's like shaky cam but better; you can
follow what's going on and it's exciting. The action itself being
tremendous and something that is like Tony Jaa's Muay Thai but
different (Silat, to be exact) and not something you usually see is a
plus, but it's done greatly and filmed for maximum excitement, with
quality editing too. The score done for the U.S. Sony Pictures
Classics was also awesome; one guy from Linkin Park took part and
while that band does nothing for me, the score is like what you'd
expect from Carpenter in the 70's but more modern.
So,
this film is something you MUST see if you dig action/martial arts;
it's subtitled but I'm sure you don't mind that. I enjoyed it so much
I plan on seeing it again on the big screen at least one more time,
this time with a larger crowd. Also, it'll take something that knocks
me on the ass to make this not be my movie of 2012, I am sure of
that.
I'll be back late Saturday afternoon with a review of a new movie I saw that I didn't exactly enjoy as much as I did this.
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