Hey folks, Harry here... We got a review sent in by an AICNer that was lucky enough to see the Mo Brothers' HEADSHOT staring the great Iko Uwais. Frankly, that's usually all I need to know, but knowing Hammer Girl is in this... Now I know, you might need more than the word of a loyal reader and first time contributor to be interested - so here's the trailer for HEADSHOT before the review... You ready? Here we go... oh and an awesome shout out to BgmSix6Six.
Long time reader, first time reviewer.
Had the priviledge of seeing the TIFF 2016 Word Premiere of the new Iko Uwais and the Mo Brothers' bloody, bone cruching new film Headshot. The talent involved in this project seems like a dream team of action movie making. Of course we have Iko of The Raid fame, Hammer Girl aka Julie Estelle and the great villain Sunny Pang, all under the direction of The Mo Brothers. Now I'll admit I have't seen all of their films, but what I have seen from them, especially Safe Haven from VHS2 and Libido from ABC's of Death are quite simply the best examples of true horror I've ever seen. I also enjoyed Killers....and now Headshot.
The plot is bare bones. Hero wakes up with no memory. Meets a girl that helps him. The bad guys find out he alive take the girl and piss him off and then all manner of vilolence take place. The actual backstory of the movie is very twisted but holds the movie together and gives us a reason to hate this villan so much.
We see a different Iko this time. He's a little vulnerable and although he's still lethal, he still takes an ass kicking and wants to be a good person from what he used to be and tries to prove it time and time again but his life won't let him and he does what he does best...kill.
A movie only seems to be as good as its' villian and Sunny Pang as Lee is one of the best parts of the film. He's calm, he's cool, he's thinking every second, he uses old school kung fu and is quite the monster, you can't help but want him dead but you can't take your eyes off him. His reasons are super twitsed but make sense to him with the "family" he's created for himself.
Okay we're here because we all want to know.....how is the action? Well, the action is very sastifying and really visercal. Iko and his team work give us some of the best fight scenes in recent memory. It's impossible not to mention The Raid but this finds it's own way to use Iko differently and that means the fight scenes are differnt from The Raid.
The film stands on its' own as a satisfiying new action thriller from some very talented people. That and Hammer Girl mentioned that the Brothers Mo and Iko and herself are working on a new movie. They already have my ticket.
Headsot is worth your time.
bgmsix6six
