Headshot

Splattering gallons of blood & leaving an endless trail of bodies all over the screen, Headshot is a blood-spilling & bone-crunching mayhem from the directing duo of Killers that's jam-packed with unadulterated R-rated action and embraces its brutal violence with open arms but is heavily marred by its terrible attempts at drama & characterization.

Headshot tells the story of a young man who washes ashore with a serious head injury and remains in comatose state for a couple of months. He wakes up with no memory and is slowly nursed back to health by his doctor but things take a brutal turn when his past life returns to haunt him in ways he didn't anticipate, thus leading him on a violent journey to uncover his identity.

Directed by Kim Stamboel & Timo Tjahjanto (also known as Mo brothers), their latest endeavour is a gleefully violent ride that's steered by Iko Uwais' physically intense performance but everything other than that is a letdown. There's no proper build-up to its moments of action and the drama is a facepalm-inducing with many insipid stuff unnecessarily stacked into the final print.

It's always fun to watch Iko Uwais break bones on the screen and it's no different here but the film isn't as inherently focused as it should be and often indulges in petty, corny & overly melodramatic moments that spoil its fun vibe & narrative flow. The action choreography is undeniably impressive but nearly none of them are properly staged. Also, more interesting than the main villain are his henchmen.

On an overall scale, Headshot can be termed as 'The Bourne Identity meets The Raid' but it lacks the gripping narrative of the former and breathtaking effectiveness of the latter to finish as something that's steeped in blood-soaked carnage yet fails to leave a lasting impact. The film had the potential and the cast to make it happen but it unfortunately settles for far less than what was up for grabs. Still worth a shot for action fanatics out there.

Being a big fan of The Raid I & II, I was looking forward to watching this movie once I had seen the trailer. Headshot proves to be one hell of a brutal action film that really earns its R rating. The action is pretty relentless and doesn't let up with with the movie racking up a solid body count within the first 20 minutes. Iko Uwais is a great up and coming action star and choreographs and pulls off some amazing fight sequences like he's done in other films (Man of Tai Chi, Merantau). Although the movie probably could of been more focused and efficient in terms of the story and the characters motivations, it is still well paced for a two hour film and action packed throughout. Overall, a solid early contender for one of the best action films of 2017.

7/10

It is a very good movie !! Action ++ It shows nice martial arts moves, without having people that fly Actors all are good. Lee is the best in this movie.....better than a lot of movies , there is always something going on...and you feel attracted to keep following , there is no much talking going on and little of action, and the action scenes are nice to watch. I recommend this movie specially to people that likes martial arts.

It's not every day you see a martial arts movie which may be as violent as any horror flick released the same year. "Headshot" is one such movie. It might be second only to "The Story of Ricky" in terms of violence, but whereas that one was a cartoonish gore flick, this one is disturbingly realistic, at least in its handling of injury. Off the top of my head we have people getting stabbed through the head sideways, a loose bullet being jammed into someone's eyeball, and someone being impaled on a broken tree branch and then trying to pull someone else onto the spike. Also, countless people are shot to death. You've heard of the Hongkongese genre "heroic bloodshed"? You don't have to be a hero to shed blood in this one.

The "story" is the usual "violent man with no past saves people while other people come to get them". I think they tacked on some kind of non-explanation for how the violent characters got that way; something about a covert operation training child soldiers. From what you see of this shady business, it is impossible to believe that anyone could come from it and be proficient at fighting; it's one of the dumbest contrivances I have seen in a recent movie. These scenes don't depict a hardcore training program for brats: they're more like an extremely inefficient method to kill children en masse.

But you don't (and won't) care about that stuff. You care about the fight scenes, and yes, they are impressive. I didn't think they were as impressive as "The Raid 2"'s, but it's hard to imagine too many fans of those kinds of movies will leave this one disappointed.

"Headshot" stars Iko Uwais as Ishmael, a man who's found washed up on a beach and put in a coma for two months due to him being shot in the head. He wakes up and doesn't remember a thing about himself. He discovers from flashbacks, gang members sent to kill him, and an incredible set of skills, that he is a former assassin/hit-man for the crime boss, Lee. When Ailin (the nurse who looked after Ishmael for two months and has liking to) is kidnapped by Lee, Ishmael sets on a mission to save Ailin, and to confront Lee once and for all. "Headshot" was the last film I saw at the 52nd Chicago International Film Festival this year and it was a very action packed way to leave the festival till next year.

"Headshot" is directed by Timo Tjahjanto, and Kimo Stamboel who also directed the very successful "Killers" (2014). The two directors have an excellent direction when it comes down to choreographing the stunts and fights and always do it with such flare. The cinematography is very well done, not to compare to "The Raid" films but the camera is much more shakier in "Headshot" and not as smooth and fluid as "The Raid" films, but nevertheless I can see what's going on and it overall captures the action very well.

The acting is overall very well. For an action film of this caliber you don't really need stellar performances but rather great action and stunt work which Iko Uwais is very good at due to him being the star for both "The Raid" films. I had a blast with this film, it was just exactly what I expected it to be, amazing action, average plot, and bad-ass characters. The audience that I saw the film with were super into it, there was always an "oh s***." or "whooo!" whenever a fight scene was happening or when it ended. It was awesome.

Other than the film being action packed and violently entertaining there's nothing else to it. This film is 100% pure entertainment, that's what it set out to be and that's what it will always be. I will admit the violence in the film was very overwhelming, every 5 or so minutes you had someone get shot in the ear, have their arm snapped in half, or burning alive. And much like "The Raid" films the absurdity and unbelievability of the violence is UNBELIEVABLE, and I love it. I mean where else will you see a guy who has his arm and leg broken with nails embedded in his fist and half beaten to a pulp still able to keep on fighting. I was laughing out loud to this stuff because it's so damn silly but so damn entertaining.

"Headshot" is nothing but a pure energetic and adrenaline filled film full of violence to satisfy any die hard action cinephile out there. Thumbs up!!!