Dear America – please outsource all action films to Indonesia from here-on-out. How can you watch a movie like Headshot and be content with typical Us ground-and-pound generics? The Mo Brothers (Kimo Stamboel/Timo Tjahjanto) break more bones than a twenty-story fall, (assumably) spending most of their budget on limb-cracking practical effects that still can’t distract from such aggressive beauty. Iko Uwais makes Jason Bourne look like a punk bitch in this brilliantly bone-crunching symphony of destruction, proving both the Mo Brothers and Mr. Uwais to be as boldly badass as we hoped their latest genre assault would permit.
Uwais plays a man who calls himself Ishmael, only because he wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory or identification. In the room is a napping Dr. Ailin (Chelsea Islan), who’s shocked by the previously-comatose patient’s now lively demeanor. She immediately begins nursing the empty-minded Ishmael back to strength,...
Uwais plays a man who calls himself Ishmael, only because he wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory or identification. In the room is a napping Dr. Ailin (Chelsea Islan), who’s shocked by the previously-comatose patient’s now lively demeanor. She immediately begins nursing the empty-minded Ishmael back to strength,...
- 9/10/2016
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
With its relatively simple premise and mesmerizing fight choreography, Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans produced a modern-day cult classic in The Raid: Redemption five years ago, a low-budget thriller that crammed in more stomach-churning deaths and dizzying Silat stunts that you can shake a machete at. It also fostered a kick-ass working relationship between Evans and Indonesian action star Iko Uwais, who went on to reunite for The Raid 2 in 2014.
Headlining two critically-acclaimed action movies in the space of three years undoubtedly put Uwais on the international map, and with Tiff 2016 looming large, the actor is returning to the fray for amnesiac thriller, Headshot.
Directed by Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto – the latter of whom penned the screenplay – what has us cautiously optimistic for this latest Uwais-fronted actioner is how Headshot looks to balance its visceral, bone-crunching action with a story that, at least based on today’s brief trailer,...
Headlining two critically-acclaimed action movies in the space of three years undoubtedly put Uwais on the international map, and with Tiff 2016 looming large, the actor is returning to the fray for amnesiac thriller, Headshot.
Directed by Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto – the latter of whom penned the screenplay – what has us cautiously optimistic for this latest Uwais-fronted actioner is how Headshot looks to balance its visceral, bone-crunching action with a story that, at least based on today’s brief trailer,...
- 9/8/2016
- by Michael Briers
- We Got This Covered
Somewhere around the hour-and-ten minute mark of Killers, I recapped what had transpired and thought, “Sweet baby Jesus, what else could these maniac “Mo brothers” possibly bash me over the head with?” Violent murders, perverse lawyers, grotesque torture, acidic erasures – then I realized there was still over an hour of carnage left. Expecting more of the same serial-slashing antics, Killers happily breaks from more generic torture-porn mentalities and engages in thoughtful depictions of a “good versus evil” battle that demands blood be spilled on both fronts. All two-hours-and-seventeen minutes are utilized by the Mo brothers, with a little scripting help from Takuji Ushiyama, as their film explores the minds of mass-murderers from a visually relentless, competitive, and unsettling new light.
With life comes the inevitability of death, but there are unjust individuals who love to play God and end other people’s lives prematurely. Nomura Shuhei (Kazuki Kitamura) is such a monster,...
With life comes the inevitability of death, but there are unjust individuals who love to play God and end other people’s lives prematurely. Nomura Shuhei (Kazuki Kitamura) is such a monster,...
- 1/19/2015
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
Stars: Oka Antara, Kazuki Kitamura, Rin Takanashi, Ray Sahetapy, Epy Kusnandar, Luna Maya, Tara Basro, Mei Kurokawa | Written by Takuji Ushiyama, Timo Tjahjanto | Directed by Kimo Stamboel, Timo Tjahjanto
When presented with a film proudly stating “from the producers of The Raid” you’d expect it to be similar, but with Killers that thought would be wrong. This isn’t a bad thing though, the subject matter makes up for it. A psychological battle of wits between two serial killers from different backgrounds being drawn together through the lust for murder is an interesting concept, what will happen when they finally meet?
Bayu Aditya (Oka Antara) is a loser in life, a failed investigative journalist and separated from his wife he finds himself pushed into murder when defending himself from a mugging. Nomura Shuhei (Kazuki Kitamura) is a charismatic good-looking man in his early thirties and more importantly successful. Behind...
When presented with a film proudly stating “from the producers of The Raid” you’d expect it to be similar, but with Killers that thought would be wrong. This isn’t a bad thing though, the subject matter makes up for it. A psychological battle of wits between two serial killers from different backgrounds being drawn together through the lust for murder is an interesting concept, what will happen when they finally meet?
Bayu Aditya (Oka Antara) is a loser in life, a failed investigative journalist and separated from his wife he finds himself pushed into murder when defending himself from a mugging. Nomura Shuhei (Kazuki Kitamura) is a charismatic good-looking man in his early thirties and more importantly successful. Behind...
- 9/1/2014
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
If you.re a fan of the fantastic .The Raid. franchise (the film just received the Critics. Choice Seal of Approval), you may want to watch this interview. Gareth Evans, the writer/director behind the franchise, talks about the probability of making .The Raid 3. and the possible plotline. He also talks about his interest behind making part 2, how the whole franchise came about, what creating documentaries have taught him in making feature films, and the eye-popping action scenes of the series.
I interviewed him via satellite (he was in Cardiff, Wales, I was in Palm Springs, California), so there are some .waiting. glitches. So I cut them off and spliced them with a white flash so you don.t have to wait!
.The Raid 2. is now showing in theaters.
.The Raid 2. Official Plot:
He thought it was over. After fighting his way out of a building filled with gangsters and...
I interviewed him via satellite (he was in Cardiff, Wales, I was in Palm Springs, California), so there are some .waiting. glitches. So I cut them off and spliced them with a white flash so you don.t have to wait!
.The Raid 2. is now showing in theaters.
.The Raid 2. Official Plot:
He thought it was over. After fighting his way out of a building filled with gangsters and...
- 4/10/2014
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
The fuzzy screen of hissing static noise – a benign magnetic videotape imprinted with the occasional time code becomes a source of evil in V/H/S 2, the outstanding follow-up to last year’s anthology that manages to outdo the original of terms of creativity and intensity. Like the first, it has no stars or big-scale special effects, but it’s an extraordinarily efficient horror film, a celebration of rock-bottom production values—and more proof of how it doesn’t take bells and whistles to scare us. Those who didn’t care for the first (a love-it-or-hate-it affair) may find this one more of the same, but it’s leaner than the original (four stories this time instead of five) with more humor and less nudity. Each segment is written/produced/directed by different filmmakers who take a fractured, mixed-media approach to their respective stories, all of which are strong.
V...
V...
- 7/12/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
"V/H/S/2" is a properly blood-spattered and chilling collection of shorts -- four films from the folks who made "The Blair Witch Project," "Hobo With a Shotgun," "The Raid" and "You're Next."
The best of them you could certainly see as full-length features, chilling little tastes of a complete vision -- story, characters, horrific situations and visual aesthetic. The worst? Simply generic.
The framing device for these "V/H/S" movies is the discovery of old videotapes. The discoverers here -- a couple of private-eye blackmailers ( Kelsy Abbott, Michael Levine) -- stumble into the cache of some obsessed collector and are shocked by what they see.
Thus, we're lured into the world of "Clinical Trials," about a man ( Adam Wingard of "You're Next") who gets an artificial eye that the manufacturer is wired into so that we can have all this footage of how the eye works and what the fellow sees.
The best of them you could certainly see as full-length features, chilling little tastes of a complete vision -- story, characters, horrific situations and visual aesthetic. The worst? Simply generic.
The framing device for these "V/H/S" movies is the discovery of old videotapes. The discoverers here -- a couple of private-eye blackmailers ( Kelsy Abbott, Michael Levine) -- stumble into the cache of some obsessed collector and are shocked by what they see.
Thus, we're lured into the world of "Clinical Trials," about a man ( Adam Wingard of "You're Next") who gets an artificial eye that the manufacturer is wired into so that we can have all this footage of how the eye works and what the fellow sees.
- 6/14/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Last year's horror anthology "VHS" took Sundance's midnight movie fans by surprise with its multiple spins on found footage scares -- some more inspired than others. A successful video on demand release followed in October and now, just a year later, the sequel "S-vhs" had its own Sundance premiere.
A shorter and more consistent thrill ride, the effectiveness of "S-vhs" still depends on a tolerance for found footage and especially turbulent camerawork.
Once again surrounded by a fairly weak framing device (this time a male and female private investigator team follow a lead to the house from the first movie, watch some freaky videotapes and realize they're in big trouble), the four shorts this time share a unifying structure: they start calmly enough and then build to frenzied -- and usually very bloody -- heights.
First up is "Phase 1," directed by and starring Adam Wingard (whose excellent film festival-screened thriller...
A shorter and more consistent thrill ride, the effectiveness of "S-vhs" still depends on a tolerance for found footage and especially turbulent camerawork.
Once again surrounded by a fairly weak framing device (this time a male and female private investigator team follow a lead to the house from the first movie, watch some freaky videotapes and realize they're in big trouble), the four shorts this time share a unifying structure: they start calmly enough and then build to frenzied -- and usually very bloody -- heights.
First up is "Phase 1," directed by and starring Adam Wingard (whose excellent film festival-screened thriller...
- 1/26/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.