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After being inflicted with a gunshot wound to the head, a young man's unconscious body washes ashore in a rural town. For the next few months, a concerned doctor looks over him and his recovery. He eventually wakes up from his coma but suffers from temporary memory loss. Unfortunately for him, his enemies (a group of gangsters who specialize in the selling of guns and drugs) soon discover that he is alive and come back to finish the job.
Before we get to the action, I should mention that the biggest flaw of this movie is the character development. Ironically, I thought the Mo Brothers did a very nice job in their last film "Killers" because the multi-dimensional personalities of the serial killers were even more interesting than the violence and thriller elements, in my opinion. "Headshot" is the complete opposite, and that's especially true in terms of character motivation specifically. I just saw this movie and I don't remember why exactly these gangsters shot our protagonist in the head at the beginning. Or why this cute doctor is so enamored with him. So yes, there are a lot of character motivation problems, but to be perfect honest – it almost doesn't matter because this movie offers a lot of action and violence to compensate.
Now if you've seen The Raid movies (directed by Gareth Evans) and you're expecting something similar here due to some of the returning cast members and the production companies, let me give you some advice. This is a Mo Brothers film, not a Gareth Evans film. That's important to understand, because those are two different beasts with different directing styles. But with that said, you do have Iko Uwais handling the fight choreography in Headshot, so there will be some overlap in terms of action design.
And here's the deal with the action design. No spoilers, of course. The final half hour, which consists of a three part finale, does have the precise, complex martial arts choreography that you expect from films like The Raid. In fact, the last fight is legitimately satisfying and somewhat surprising because of two reasons: first, the main villain does not fight much at all until that moment; and second, he uses an unexpected form of martial arts that really adds some variety and excitement. In addition, there are some moments in "Headshot" where nearby objects – that are not typically used as weapons in everyday life – are used to stun or straight-up murder people. That's one of the signature traits in films directed by Gareth Evans. So that's the aforementioned "overlap" that I was talking about.
With that said, however, everything before that three stage finale feels like a Mo Brothers film. Which basically means that the first 2/3rds of "Headshot" primarily showcases scrappy, simplistically choreographed, blunt, visceral death scenes that would be more at home in a thriller or horror film. Characters are just trying to survive in this movie, and many of them don't. The death scenes in this are very memorable, creative, and gory. There's one scene near the end where a dude gets shot and it reminded me of that infamous scene in Robocop when the ED-209 eviscerated that salaryman in the conference room. Yeah, that's how the violence in this movie works. It's excessive . . . even more so than The Raid movies. But that excessiveness is a lot of fun to watch for people who enjoy "hard R" rated action movies and there's actually a bit of black humor that is thrown in at times. So the Mo Brothers really did put their stamp on this.
Another thing that I noticed with regard to the action design, is that there's a surprising absence of one-vs-many fights in this. We're used to seeing at least one or two scenes of Iko taking down hordes of baddies in Merantau and The Raid movies, but that does not happen often in "Headshot" despite the huge quantity of fighting. It's almost like every fight is a one-on-one match of survival, even in those cases where multiple characters are involved. And that creates a very different feel to "Headshot" because some of the "stock henchmen" are incredibly difficult to kill. And you may have a handful of these dudes lurking around a crashed bus site, or a police station, or a forest hideout, and our hero has to slowly explore and make his way thru these surroundings while taking out each of these guys one at a time. That also helps to make every death scene very personal and memorable.
That action format also helps to create a fantastic pacing. I read a few online reviews that criticized the opening half hour for being slow, but I completely disagree with that assessment. After watching this movie twice in the theater, I don't think 10 minutes went by – at any point in this film – without someone getting violently murdered or beaten. That is not an exaggeration. And the locations change quite a bit, so there's plenty of variety in that regard too. Make no mistake about it – this is a crowd-pleaser for fans of visceral action.
Before I leave you tonight, I wanted to point out one more thing – the music and scoring, which are fantastic. There's even some use of heavy, ominous synthesizer music that worked really well. It had a John Carpenter vibe to it, and considering how one of the most memorable sequences occurs in a police station, perhaps the Mo Brothers are fans of Assault on Precinct 13. I would not be surprised.
After being inflicted with a gunshot wound to the head, a young man's unconscious body washes ashore in a rural town. For the next few months, a concerned doctor looks over him and his recovery. He eventually wakes up from his coma but suffers from temporary memory loss. Unfortunately for him, his enemies (a group of gangsters who specialize in the selling of guns and drugs) soon discover that he is alive and come back to finish the job.
Before we get to the action, I should mention that the biggest flaw of this movie is the character development. Ironically, I thought the Mo Brothers did a very nice job in their last film "Killers" because the multi-dimensional personalities of the serial killers were even more interesting than the violence and thriller elements, in my opinion. "Headshot" is the complete opposite, and that's especially true in terms of character motivation specifically. I just saw this movie and I don't remember why exactly these gangsters shot our protagonist in the head at the beginning. Or why this cute doctor is so enamored with him. So yes, there are a lot of character motivation problems, but to be perfect honest – it almost doesn't matter because this movie offers a lot of action and violence to compensate.
Now if you've seen The Raid movies (directed by Gareth Evans) and you're expecting something similar here due to some of the returning cast members and the production companies, let me give you some advice. This is a Mo Brothers film, not a Gareth Evans film. That's important to understand, because those are two different beasts with different directing styles. But with that said, you do have Iko Uwais handling the fight choreography in Headshot, so there will be some overlap in terms of action design.
And here's the deal with the action design. No spoilers, of course. The final half hour, which consists of a three part finale, does have the precise, complex martial arts choreography that you expect from films like The Raid. In fact, the last fight is legitimately satisfying and somewhat surprising because of two reasons: first, the main villain does not fight much at all until that moment; and second, he uses an unexpected form of martial arts that really adds some variety and excitement. In addition, there are some moments in "Headshot" where nearby objects – that are not typically used as weapons in everyday life – are used to stun or straight-up murder people. That's one of the signature traits in films directed by Gareth Evans. So that's the aforementioned "overlap" that I was talking about.
With that said, however, everything before that three stage finale feels like a Mo Brothers film. Which basically means that the first 2/3rds of "Headshot" primarily showcases scrappy, simplistically choreographed, blunt, visceral death scenes that would be more at home in a thriller or horror film. Characters are just trying to survive in this movie, and many of them don't. The death scenes in this are very memorable, creative, and gory. There's one scene near the end where a dude gets shot and it reminded me of that infamous scene in Robocop when the ED-209 eviscerated that salaryman in the conference room. Yeah, that's how the violence in this movie works. It's excessive . . . even more so than The Raid movies. But that excessiveness is a lot of fun to watch for people who enjoy "hard R" rated action movies and there's actually a bit of black humor that is thrown in at times. So the Mo Brothers really did put their stamp on this.
Another thing that I noticed with regard to the action design, is that there's a surprising absence of one-vs-many fights in this. We're used to seeing at least one or two scenes of Iko taking down hordes of baddies in Merantau and The Raid movies, but that does not happen often in "Headshot" despite the huge quantity of fighting. It's almost like every fight is a one-on-one match of survival, even in those cases where multiple characters are involved. And that creates a very different feel to "Headshot" because some of the "stock henchmen" are incredibly difficult to kill. And you may have a handful of these dudes lurking around a crashed bus site, or a police station, or a forest hideout, and our hero has to slowly explore and make his way thru these surroundings while taking out each of these guys one at a time. That also helps to make every death scene very personal and memorable.
That action format also helps to create a fantastic pacing. I read a few online reviews that criticized the opening half hour for being slow, but I completely disagree with that assessment. After watching this movie twice in the theater, I don't think 10 minutes went by – at any point in this film – without someone getting violently murdered or beaten. That is not an exaggeration. And the locations change quite a bit, so there's plenty of variety in that regard too. Make no mistake about it – this is a crowd-pleaser for fans of visceral action.
Before I leave you tonight, I wanted to point out one more thing – the music and scoring, which are fantastic. There's even some use of heavy, ominous synthesizer music that worked really well. It had a John Carpenter vibe to it, and considering how one of the most memorable sequences occurs in a police station, perhaps the Mo Brothers are fans of Assault on Precinct 13. I would not be surprised.