Iko Uwais, the greatest recent hero of Asian action cinema, is back. In Headshot, he drives an extreme Indonesian genre piece chock-full of action sequences and frequent gory ultra-violence, all tied together as something of a very dumbed-down Bourne Identity.
The villain is cartoonishly evil, in fact the film’s whole mythology is very comic book-y; albeit of the very R-rated, nasty comic book variety. Everything is over-the-top – when dudes get shot, they get shot several dozen times. When their limbs get broken, the camera makes sure the injury is centre-frame and lingers longer than good taste suggests it should. This is a beautiful thing.
Surprisingly, the near non-stop assault of brutality doesn’t lessen its impact, but the fairly silly nature of it all means that impact is never too strong anyway. It’s hard to invest in the one-dimensional characters or the no-frills story, hence it’s hard to become invested in the action itself, and it all edges dangerously close to becoming meaningless.
But thankfully, it doesn’t quite get there. There is just enough of a plot to want to see the damsel-in-distress saved and the very bad man meet his very bad end. And when the combat is as varied as this, even if one particular fight isn’t so enjoyable, it’s always only a few minutes until the next, probably better, one.
Directors the Mo Brothers aren’t quite as skilled as their mate Gareth Evans (The Raid and its sequel) at either staging spectacular action sequences or crafting a satisfying story. But when Headshot is at its best, they couple stunning choreography and special effects with some highly impressive camerawork to brilliant effect, making for a wild, thrilling ride.
