Action

The Big 4 Review | An Uproarous, Action Packed Joy Ride

Timo Tjahjanto once again delivers an action extravaganza with a surprising amount of style, heart and gut busting comedy.

Published

12 months ago

December 17, 2022

Olly Dyche

Utterly bonkers and gloriously gory, The Big 4 offers a louder, more stylized and hilarious experience which vastly differs from director, Timo Tjahjanto’s previous Netflix action epic, The Night That Comes For Us. And whilst The Big 4 doesn’t achieve the brilliance nor does the action compare to that of The Night That Comes For Us, The Big 4 instead delivers more on its heart, comedy and odd, yet entertaining assortment of characters.

Four retired assassins spring back into action when they cross paths with a straight-arrowed cop determined to track down the elusive murderer that killed her father, only to learn that the murderer has a shared past with them all.

Timo Tjahjanto once again proves he is an action movie legend delivering another action extravaganza. With brutal choreography, expert direction and phenomenal physicality from its actors, The Big 4‘s action is among the best the year had to offer. However, The Big 4‘s action doesn’t quite compare to the gory, explosive and jaw dropping action from The Night That Comes For Us but is still nonetheless engaging and incredibly entertaining.

The Big 4‘s story is fairly simple and is nothing that we haven’t seen before, many times. However where The Big 4 shines above the rest is with its compelling and completely nuts characters, that provide a much needed and welcome heart to the flick. Each character is brilliantly kooky and stand out in their own ways, with each having totally different personalities and more importantly, talents.

Similarly, the film’s cast is great, selling the relationships with infectious chemistry, as well as elevating the films comedy. The films over the top characters would be nothing if it wasn’t for the brilliant cast bringing them to life. All without metioning the phenomenal physicality each actor brings to the fight scenes.

In terms of both of its action and comedy there is simply no holds bared in this relentless action packed joy ride. The action whilst still exciting, also offers many silly and comedic moments very remiscient of Jackie Chan’s action comedy style. Comedy-wise, The Big 4 is absolutely uproarous as the characters all hurl hilarious insults at each other. Sure, there aren’t many, if at all any clever, or uniquely written jokes, instead the comedy mostly comes from the cast its absurd characters and its action.

Ultimately, The Big 4 is simply KICK-ASS. Relishing in it ridiculous and bonkers nature, resulting in an incredibly entertaining and action packed flick. It’s characters and the relationships give the film a lot of heart and elevate its humour, and even though the action doesn’t quite compare to Tjahjanto’s The Night That Comes For Us, there is still plenty here to still make it memorable and a worthy addition to Tjahjanto’s filmography.

Courtesy of Netflix

FILM RATING

Related Topics:Action Comedy Netflix REVIEWS

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Olly Dyche

Olly Dyche is a British film critic and self proclaimed professional nerd. As a member of the International Film Society Critics, Olly has had much experience as a film critic and journalist. His passion for film has inspired him to do what he does best. That being, staying anti-social, watching any and every movie and TV show he can, as well as giving his "professional" opinions whether you ask for it or not. With his Cineworld Unlimited card (input cheeky plug here) you will most likely find Olly at his local Cineworld cinema, chomping down on some sweet (yeah, that's right sweet over salted baby) popcorn whilst soaking in the glorious visuals of the latest big screen release, most likely, a horror, comic book or Disney movie.

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Action

Godzilla Minus One | Official Trailer #2

Post war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb

Published

3 weeks ago

November 6, 2023

Staff

Genre:

Action, Adventure, Drama

Release Date:

December 1, 2023

Director:

Takashi Yamazaki

Cast:

Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada

Plot Summary:

Post war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb

FILM RATING

Action

The Continental Review: Not The Prequel We Needed

Published

2 months ago

October 4, 2023

Kevin Verma

Ever since Lionsgate greenlit this series in early 2017, fans of the franchise have been eagerly anticipating to see how the John Wick universe expands. 4 movies in, the John Wick franchise is widely known as one of the greatest action movie franchises of all time with our titular character (a.k.a Baba Yaga) becoming one of the most iconic and bad-ass figures ever in Hollywood. The Continental: From The World of John Wick is a prequel series that tells the story of Winston Scott and how he became the manager of New York’s The Continental branch.

The miniseries was developed by Greg Coolidge, Kirk Ward and Shawn Simmons. It is executive produced by Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese, Derek Kolstad, David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, the director of all four John Wick movies. It is structured as a 3-night event told through three 90-minute episodes. The series was originally supposed to air on Starz, but the network sold it to Peacock in 2022. After 6 years in development, it finally aired on Peacock this September.

A lot has been made of the subtitle of the project ever since it was announced. The fact that the makers needed to include it says a lot about the show. It almost felt like the prime marketing asset for it many times as the other promotional material didn’t necessarily create a lot of hype for the show. Albert Hughes directed the first and third episodes, while Charlotte Branstrom directed the second, and disappointingly both directors do not bring the same novelty or creative prowess that Chad Stahelski managed to bring in the John Wick movies.

The show also surprisingly lacks any real star power. This franchise is one of Lionsgate’s most prized assets, so you would imagine that they would make sure to get a big cast and crew for this prequel miniseries, but they didn’t. Colin Woodell as Winston Scott is the clear standout among the cast despite delivering only a decent performance, which says a lot about the acting standards in this 3-episode miniseries. Many have criticized the casting of Mel Gibson in the series, but I personally had no issue with his performance and he’s also the most recognizable member of the cast despite having no real audience pull anymore.

The writing doesn’t offer too much to ponder upon or any seriously shocking turns in the story as most of the focus is on making the product as epic, badass and action-packed as possible. Some of the characters had some interesting layers to them, especially Charon (Ayomide Adegun) and Lou (Jessica Allain). Lemmy (Adam Shapiro) provides some much-needed comic relief with his witty dialogues. The structuring of the story works really well as a 3-night event which sets the high stakes and sets a standard of intensity for the narrative.

But the thing that people were most looking forward to, was the action and how it fared against John Wick. Unfortunately, that department was inconsistent as well. Ben Robson’s fight sequence in the early part of the first episode was great and it makes you optimistic that the action would get better from here on, but it never does. Most of the action blocks here involve explosions and guns rather than the hand-to-hand combat John Wick franchise is known for. Some of the action was awesome and some of it sadly wasn’t.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick brings a lot of glamour as it tries to expand its world but fails to engage with its paper-thin plot. The characters are mostly dull with a formulaic villain and misses the presence of a magnetic protagonist like Wick. A prequel about Wick’s backstory would’ve been much more interesting than this inconsistent prequel event saved by its style and some great action. It has almost enough to be its own thing but doesn’t quite have enough to match its parent movies.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick premieres on Peacock in the US and Prime Video in the UK and Australia on 22 September, with new episodes weekly.