Paskal: The Movie

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.

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.

This is the first Malaysian movie I have seen, and after watching it I would be willing to watch more Malaysian movies, even though this particular effort didn't quite make it in my opinion. The movie is fairly well made on a fraction of a Hollywood budget, though I will admit some scenes look more like a glossy made for television production than a big screen movie. And the cast is decent and works hard, though when they speak English, their accents make some of their words hard to understand. The main problem with the movie is the script. If you have seen any other movie about a country's special forces, then this story will be extremely familiar for you, from the domestic problems of the special forces members to the bad guys' activities. You'll be able to easily predict what happens long before it actually unfolds. That might have been forgivable had the movie been more exciting and action packed, but there is less action in the movie than you might think. And what action there is doesn't really get about a routine level. Still, I will give the movie this: It's a LOT better than practically every movie my country (Canada) turns out!

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.

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.