Paskal: The Movie

This is a movie that from a military point of view is very, very well done. Yes, some of the characters are a bit wooden and the general characterization was not exactly great - but the film is clearly intended as a propaganda/recruiting piece, so the cheesiness of that part is really no surprise.

Apparently if one is Malay, this movie is a 10. Otherwise it plays out like a 1970 TV movie. At the bowie knife fight I gave up. I cannot recommend if you are used to higher quality fare, it is clear that team Malay voted this way up... yet this is substandard otherwise.

The movie boasts TLDM awesome asset that were used to carry out their past missions and operations. However to my dismay the characters in this movie is so bad i couldn't keep my ass laughing in some scenes . serious character flaws had reduce this movie a cheap 80's action flick.

The basic scheme, though inspired by actual events, reminds me an American action feature from 2003 titled SWAT, where an ex cop belonging to the police elite force, decided to get thru the boundary between good and bad. This Malaysian film can be seen as a kind of propaganda, docu fiction stuff about the Malaysian special forces. Not bad at all, a pretty good time waster. But that's not CAPTAIN PHILIPS either. The final scènes are a bit too cheesy for me; too much predictable. You can easily live without it.

Putting aside the main actors and their ability to act; this unique gem of a Malaysian movie stands out as one of the best to break the generic genres plaging Malaysia cinema.

The strength of this movie lies squarely on their faithful interpretation of military tactics and deployment. Which was beautifully done.

It started strong showing a glimpse of how PASKAL operates and its internal culture. However, I suppose it may be their undoing to introduce personal vendettas making it look like an 80's B rate action movie that would make Jan Micheal Vincent blush. That is the weak link in this movie and killed off a great momentum.