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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2011
Country of origin:	Indonesia / USA
Director:	Gareth Evans
Genre:	Brutal martial arts brilliance
Starring:	Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1899353/
Tagline:	When there's nowhere left to run or hide... you fight or die.
Favourite line:	N/A - Subtitled.

Indonesian martial arts movie directed by a Welshman?
What?

The plot:
In the heart of the Jakarta slums lies an apartment block.
Tall, decrepit, imposing.
For many years, the building has been a no-go zone for police, but something has changed.
Led by Sergeant Jaka, a SWAT team is sent in.
Their mission?
Take down the crime-lord who runs the place, Tama, by any means necessary.

As simple as it gets, premise-wise, this is a movie that lives and dies by the action content.
Billed as ‘the action film of the year’ on the posters, for my money, that sentiment does not stretch nearly far enough.
This is breathtakingly brilliant from start to finish.
Showcasing a form of martial arts new to movies, Silat, a style of Indonesian origin, this is brutal and bloodthirsty stuff. Limbs crack, bones snap, throats are slit hither and thither and, crucially, due to the excellence of the direction, you feel every fucking blow.
The camerawork is skilled and intelligent, remaining static enough for the audience to actually have a clue what is happening. Too frequently, these days, action scenes are fast-cut blurs of nothingness, only the sound effects really clueing you in as to what is happening.
Bond and Bourne, I’m looking right at you.
Here, though, Evans allows the camera to draw back, to hold the entire tableau in frame and, wisely, to leave it there. Elbows slam into faces, knees ram into hips and thighs, shins are used to block attacks, foreheads splatter noses, all of it captured beautifully. It’s like the most complex and shocking ballet, played out at relentless speed, the choreography demanding of the performers near superhuman feats. So effective is the barrage of body blows, audience members were wincing, some even forced to turn away from what was taking place.
Let’s think about this. This got a straight eighteen certificate, purely based on the violence. That just does not happen anymore. For a movie to attain an eighteen, there needs to be something beyond mere violence, usually sexually charged violence or explicit sex, or explicit drug use. Here, it’s just the fisticuffs that warrant the certificate. The last time, to my knowledge, that happened was for The Passion of the Christ.
There’s your context, people.
Don’t underplay the level of screen brutality on show, here. Van Damme this ain’t so, if in doubt, best give it a miss.
You weakling scum.
With a grin plastered across my gormless face from beginning to end, this flew past in a blaze of flying fists and shattered teeth and, when the end came, I was genuinely disappointed.
Could have done another hour, no problem.
Quite simply amazing, this is not, as claimed, the best action movie of the year, it’s the best action movie in 23 years.
You read that right.
Folks, it’s the best action movie since Die Hard.
Simple as that.