Farang

Been awhile. The last film I saw from Gens was Frontier(s) some years back which was eye opening and fiersome.

Fast forward, and here we are. He's done some "smaller" projects I believe since my indoctrination into Euro horror and thrillers, abd this one did not disappoint.

All too familiar tropes won't work if you don't have the atmospheres, the cinematography, and in this particular case, the extreme violent sequences. So beware, this film was far away from the faint of heart, but he did pay over and above homage to some of the better directors in the subgenre---Takashi Miike, Perk Chan Wook and the more recent to join in this clan, Gareth Evans.

It's bleak, it's realistic and graphic at the core of the violence. But when you have a solid lead protagonist---the violence comes through that character rather easily. It's a story of redemption in its infancy that turns on its heels into one of the best revenge films of the the past 10 years. Gritty, beautifully shot, and gripping enough to hold you, and even hard to look away when its at it most challengingly disturbing.

Bring on the XG shark film...

The cinematography of the movie is really good it has all the things that a good action movie needs but just a GOOD action movie not amazing or anything better than that because I could predict every single thing in this movie not just the general idea but every action that was happening in this movie The acting is pretty good Music didn't catch me that much as a composer editing was good The actual action scenes themselves were also pretty good I accept the fact that director was trying to use the general structure of a action / drama movie but it could have been better than that Overall I think It worth a shot .

"I loved her more than you ever could."

Mayhem! Is directed by Xavier Gens and stars Nassim Lyes.

We're only about 7 days into 2024 and I think we already have a contender for best action movie of the year. Mayhem! Also known as Farang (Foreigner) is like if you combine Taken and John Wick and The Raid movies and you blend them all together.

Sam (Nassim Lyes) is a guy who's taken a lot of punches both mentally and physically. When we first meet him he's an ex-con just getting out of jail trying to get his life together and escape his local gang. He eventually does build a life for himself and wants to buy a house for himself and his wife however Thailand's laws and a powerful real estate developer get in the way. As you could guess one thing leads to another and Sam is on a warpath for revenge.

Despite the story being so cliche I appreciate Xavier Gens as a director for essentially showing all of Sam's struggles for about the first half of this movie and showing the pain and hardship he has to go through so when his wife is eventually killed it's his breaking point and the Sam we get for the rest of the movie is cold and brutal when he has to be. The grounded approach of the movie's action design, combined with fight scenes that get more gory and brutal than the last really make this great. Sam also isn't invincible here making all the fight scenes feel genuinely dangerous. Xavier Gens (Hitman, Gangs Of London) is also a second unit director on the upcoming Gareth Evans, Tom Hardy movie, Havoc as well so if you already weren't excited for that this movie is even more reason to be.

This movie was a huge suprise for me and is easily a contender for best action movie of the year already with a star making performance from Nassim Lyes. Unfortunately I feel like this film will probably get buried because of its DTV release through IFC Films. Xavier Gens is certainly a name to watch in the action space going forward.

No pun intended - a human is who he is. We are mostly unable to escape our true self. No matter the country we end up in ... our true colors will shine through. Of course if that means, you get to show off your fighting skills .. well that is very much appreciated.

Xavier Gens - he has done quite a few good movies. Some may argue it has been some time since his last good one. I will leave that judgement up to you. I know if you like action movies, you will have a field day here. The action choreography is really top notch. The level of violence through the roof ... the stunt people are quite known (tv show which I have not seen yet).

Main character is good, pacing may be a bit too slow for some I reckon ... but you can't have fighting all the time ... there needs to be some story in between ... even if it seems to lead nowhere ...

I had waited months for this to come be available in North America. I had high expectations given the episodes from Gangs of London and Frontieres. The last 20 mins was well choreographed and as violent as I would have expected the rest of the movie to be, in the end felt like some missed opportunities to ratchet up the action. Some of the locations were amazing. Overall worth it fro the elevator scene! The story felt way too dramatic when in reality it was a cookie cutter revenge story. Not sure about the lead actor - he was good in the action scenes but the dramatic parts were too drawn out.