The Big 4

The Big 4 doesn't quite have the storytelling finesse of Timo's earlier works, yet it's a fun little action romp. The plot is just an excuse for the lead characters (retired assassins and a cop) to go after a rival gang and find their mentor's murderer, cooking up some fantastic set-pieces along the way. The humor works when it's not trying to be too goofy. One instance of it not working is that "possessed" scene, which almost looks like a badly done parody of Timo's own May the Devil Take You. That said, I loved how Timo attributed some quirks to each of his leads. Topan (Abimana Aryasatya) has a crush on his mentor's daughter Dina (Putri Marino), Jenggo (Arie Kriting) is high on his sniper rifle (which he refers to as his girlfriend), Alpha (Lutesha) comes up with an explosive gas cylinder known as Lucifer's Fart 3000 (LOL!), and Pelor (Kristo Immanuel) is always the "bait" whenever the gang infiltrates a baddie hideout.

All of this plays into the film's screenplay and character decisions. But, who can look past the fun action choreography? Every time a set-piece breaks out, you know it's going to surprise you in more ways than one. That's the beauty of watching a Timo Tjahjanto actioner. It's deranged and atmospheric, with Batara Goempar's camera constantly on the move, either capturing gory kills or exciting knife/gun/fist fights. The cast make most of the emotional bits work, and while you wouldn't consider anything here as deeply moving, it's good enough to make you care for their happy ending. Timo leaves room for a sequel, and although The Big 4 is no The Night Comes for Us, it offers exactly what it says it does.

Tjahjanto's The Night Comes For Us is one of the best, most brutal action films I've seen in recent years, and Headshot was also a solid contribution to the genre, so I expected quite a lot more from this.

Sometimes comedy is very unique to certain cultures and doesn't really translate well. I don't know if that's the case here or if it was just not well-written, but most of the comedic parts (which make up the bulk of the film) are really cringe-inducing and not entertaining. The parts where the comedy mixed with the action were somewhat more successful. But overall there is just not enough action here.

At almost 2 and a half hours, the film is simply too long. They could have cut half an hour and it still would have been excessive. Tonally, the film is all over the place, and not in a way that was very satisfying. The best parts were those in which the violence was hilariously and intentionally over-the-top. But there were really only a couple of scenes like that in the entire film, and the "down time" between those moments was frankly difficult to sit through.

They clearly set this up for a sequel. I do think there's potential there, but only if it's a lot more focused than this first film and better prioritizes the action over the silly character moments that don't really work.

Timo Tjahjanto is one of the best action directors in the business. If you need convincing, just watch Headshot (2016) and The Night Comes For Us (2018), both of which deliver amazing fight choreography and brutal violence aplenty.

Unfortunately, Timo doesn't appear to be so great at comedy, of which there is lots in The Big 4; his attempts at humour in this film are pretty terrible, making it quite tedious at times, especially whenever the film takes a break from the kicking and punching and shooting and explosions.

Things kick off in fine form, as the titular quartet of vigilantes make a gang of evil organ traffickers pay the price for their crimes. It's gleefully OTT, the screen painted red with the blood of the guilty. The foursome -- Topan (Abimana Aryasatya), Jenggo (Arie Kriting), Alpha (Lutesha) and Pelor (Kristo Immanuel) -- have been trained as assassins by their adoptive father Petrus, whose real daughter, policewoman Dina (Putri Marino), has no idea about her dad's other 'children'.

Three years later, Petrus is murdered, and Dina investigates, discovering her father's secret...

The comedy kicks in when Dina encounters her 'brothers and sister', who have now retired from the killing business, and the film suffers for it, the silliness being more irritating than funny. Of course, the film ends with a jaw-dropping action set-piece in which Tjahjanto piles on the stylish ultra-violence with aplomb, but it's not easy to forget all of the daft nonsense that precedes it.

9/10 for the action, 2/10 for the rest, which averages out at 5.5/10 (rounded up to 6 for IMDb).

Nothing new in terms of storyline, we've seen a lot of this kind of story in Hollywood movies, but I have to admit that the CGI and the martial choreography is good and nice to watch.

Abimana and Putri Marino are the main casts that really standout, well done...!!

The other casts seem to be occupied with the script that makes them unable to develop characters.

Honestly, I do like the harsh words used in this movie, although a little cultural shock for me, but it relevant to the characters and the kind of life they are in.

The comedy in the scripts are quite good, it do tickles and make me smile and laugh.

The Big 4 are the adopted children of Petrus, who has trained them to be perfect assassins well atleast 3 of them as the youngest one mostly is a bait. Petrus is murdered leading to the big 4 to go on hiding while his actual daughter becomes a police officer and is obsessed to solve his murder. How the daughter teams up with the 4 to take revenge on their father's killer, forms rest of the story.

The tone never gets serious with constant funny lines thrown around. Many jokes don't land correctly, but the loud comedy somehow carries the story forward while the bloody action set pieces take care of the rest. Much of the jokes fall under the silly category but the action set pieces gets more fun whenever they get silly which should be credited for the innovativeness. The story is built up for a sequel so the main reason for the conflict is still kept unrevealed.