Headshot

"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.

"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!!!

Short review: Nicely plotted, acted, little action thriller. The two hours go by fairly quickly.

Longer review: Some have suggested that this is Bourne with "more violence." And especially after the sorry mess that was the last Bourne film (see my IMDb review) such a feat would have been welcome. But no it is not. The Bourne story -- the top professional with a slight memory problem -- was much more subtle, This is more like Tony Jaa from Ong Bak (who actually looks like the star here!) waking up with a migraine and then everyone on the planet tries to kill him.

The action scenes are wonderful, except for the very first scene in the prison, which features too many automatic weapons going off at once. Some are especially memorable. For example -- just a tease -- this film will teach you how the very same bullet can kill a man twice. Once when you fire it. And again when you get your hands on the spent cartridge.

Recommended.

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. :)

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.