Headshot

Iko Uwais is amazing. If you've seen him in other movies, you already know this and don't need me to try to sell you on this one.

This movie is pretty much non stop action, with some scenes being very brutal and even a little difficult to watch. (I'm generally not the one to look away, unless it's something like *that* scene from "American History X".) The choreography is beautiful to watch and I found myself rewinding and rewatching multiple scenes several times. I really, really liked the way the movie was shot as well, from fast to slow motion, to many different angles used.

The rest of the major characters were also great, with Very Tri Yulisman really blowing me away.

Sure, the movie is maybe a little predictable, but there's still a good story there - much better than I expected for this type of movie. There's also just enough of drama and romance to add substance, without being cheesy or annoying. (We're here for the action, after all. If we want romance, we'll go watch "The Notebook" or "La La Land" - both of which are great movies, BTW.)

Some of my favorite scenes are around the 29m, 1h11m, and 1h42m marks.

Just do yourself a favor and watch this movie. :)

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

"The door swings both ways my friend." This is not something a maximum security prison guard likes to hear when facing a dangerous psychopath and skilled fighter who appears, with the help of insiders, to be on the verge of a break out attempt. The prison guard, as may be expected, is not long for this world. The man he faced, Lee, escapes from the prison over piles of injured and dead. By force of will and fist, Lee re-assumes command of a fearsome gang and drug distributing territory, but he is searching for someone that he desperately needs. The man he is looking for was admitted to the hospital with severe head trauma and amnesia. In the hospital, a burning bus, shadowy warehouse and the remains of a shattered police station, we begin to understand the stories of the two opposing characters. A doctor, Ailin, gets caught in the middle.

This gory, raw and darkly humorous film contains some amazing scenes and lines, especially in the first half. The main characters, both good and evil, repeatedly defy the odds as well as expectations. There are a lot of broken bones and buckets of blood are spilled. I like how the fighters make mistakes in judgment, such as impulsively swinging a machete at someone and not realizing there is an iron beam blocking your arm. These mistakes accord with human nature. Too often in films, action films in particular, the characters and scenes seem devoid of such substance, black and white and no gray in between. In another example of this, Lee chides Ailin; "You should have stabbed me here (points to artery), I thought you were a doctor."

Headshot also includes thrilling music, romances between beautiful people, and unexpected twists and turns. I love the frequent nods to Herman Melville. Even the main character of Headshot is tagged with the nickname of Ishmael, the narrator of Moby Dick. Headshot's theme echoes a theme of Moby Dick; what it means to be strong. The last half of the film is tamer and blander than the first, yet it is still thrilling. Seen at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

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.