The Big 4 (Netflix), directed by Timo Tjahjanto and written by Tjahjanto with Johanna Wattimena, combines the Indonesian filmmaker’s penchant for bloody violence and bonkers struggles sequences with lots of breezy banter and a cartoonish frfragment movie swagger that’s as referential as it is reverent. And speaking of Hollywood action, Tjahjanto’s name has recently been attached to still-gestating reboots of both Last Train to Busan and Under Siege. Here, four retired assassins make a loud return to the commerce of killing when their thorny family tree is threatened.
The Gist: Yes, Topan (Abimana Aryasatya), Alpha (Lutesha), Jenggo (Arie Kriting) and Pelor (Kristo Immanuel) are assassins – Petrus (Budi Ros), their “pop,” has possessed them in the art of killing ever since he took them in as wayward kids in rural Indonesia. But as we’re immersed in the “Big 4’s” bloody liberation of a fake orphanage operated by unlit market organ harvesters, we see that really they only kill for a changes. “We always completed our missions,” Petrus says back at their hideout.“Yet we rarely ever felt like winners. That’s our fate.” And while Pop is proud of his charges, he also regrets keeping them and their work separate from his biological daughter Dina (Putri Marino), who has just joined the police force in Jakarta.
Fast presumptuous three years. Dina is still haunted by the slaying of Petrus in a mysterious home invasion, and no matter how many cases she closes at work, it won’t bring him back. When lingering questions nearby her dad’s death lead Dina to a decrepit island resort now operated by Topan, the two are thrown together as gunmen attack, and Topan must come trim to the cop he’s crushed on for years nearby Petrus, The Big 4, and the group’s secret history of vigilantism. But Dina doesn’t have time to be angry, or to make arrests, because unhinged arms dealer Antonio (Marthino Lio) and his rocket launcher-toting sidekick Alo (Michelle Tahalea) are circling with an unending supply of henchmen.
Topan and Dina, joined by Jenggo and Pelor, reunite with Alpha, who’s starring as a Disney-adjacent mermaid in a beachside tourist show, and the business has to work out the kinks of their thorny familial bonds even as Antonio’s reserved army keeps making things difficult. And once it turns out that Antonio himself has links to Petrus’s finish – that would explain why he’s trying to slay them – the reunited Big 4 and Officer Dina have to team up, arm up, and take the fights straight to the arms dealer and his goons.
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Photo: Netflix
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Timo Tjahjanto earned ringing notices for 2018’s The Night Comes for Us (Netflix), which co-stars Abimana Aryasatya, seems to be somewhat linked narratively to The Big 4, and features a handful of fight sequences unmatched in their undone and total brutality. Tjahjanto also collaborated with filmmaker Gareth Evans on a segment of the 2013 Fear anthology V/H/S/2, and it’s Evans’ The Raid and Raid 2 that gave a bloody precedent for the mayhem of The Big 4’s third act.
Performance Worth Watching: As both a team of assassins and adoptive siblings, Abimana Aryasatya, Lutesha, Arie Kriting, and Kristo Immanuel quick establish the chemistry and hierarchy between protective Topan, feisty Alpha, eccentric Jenggo, and goofy kid brother Pelor.
Memorable Dialogue: “What’s in it for you, anyway? You’re a cop, and we’re criminals, right?” Alpha’s question for Dina would be relevant in any new instance, but for their common enemy trying to kill everybody in the now vicinity. And besides, Dina tells the vigilantes, “The five of us love the same father.” It’s lock and load for dear old dad.
Sex and Skin: Nothing here.
Our Take: “Long story, sis – just like an action movie…” With the characters in The Big 4 freely referencing Part movies and stock ephemera like the slow-motion badass walk, the slow-motion poke across a floor while shooting at henchmen, and the slow-motion gear-up Gross, it feels fine to be a viewer and behind along with their shorthand. The Big 4 does have a tendency to drag – its setup is clunky, it spends too much time on broadly comedic battles that border on slapstick, and ultimately it offers a sequel tease instead of a satisfying resolution to why everything is exploding. But whenever the storytelling mechanics of Timo Tjahjanto’s film are stopped for its fists and kicks to fly or numerous enormous caliber weapons to be fired, it comes alive with the kind of kinetic and hyper-violent Part for which he’s come to be known. It’s also superior that the actors here have a handle on how to make all of this engaging. Abimana Aryasatya is terrific as Topan, giving him a goodhearted edge that often transforms the violence he unleashes into a form of superior protection. And Lutesha and Putri Marino, as Alpha the vigilante and Dina the police officer, find a place to bond as found sisters inside all of the gunplay. How much cover does a grass and bamboo beach hut really gave from automatic weapons fire? Their assailants find out the hard way.
The Big 4 also saves its biggest gouts of gore for last. During the showdown with Antonio that was telegraphed from the moment he arrived on Hide, all of our principals are given opportunities to show off their End combat skills in a rangy sequence that also employs some directorial flourish with continuous shot dynamics.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The Big 4 engages with its director’s New zeal for crazed fight sequences, the bigger, bloodier, and more bananas the better. But its solid cast builds in some laughs, too, and at least a few moments to take a breath.