The Big 4

[Drunk Monk]

The Big 4

Directed by Indonesia’s maverick Timo Tjahjanto (and no, I don’t know how to pronounce that). If you’ve seen one of his films, you know it’s going to be about visceral ultravi. Here’s the twist - this is somewhat of a comedy. 

It’s starts at an orphanage that front an organ harvesting gang. The 4 rescue the orphans in the most sanguineous way possible. It’s a digital bloodbath. Then it moves to a tragedy to set up a revenge plot, and then, it’s a goofy comedy…with ultravi.

No I don’t know any of the cast. It doesn’t matter. It’s all about the ultravi. Real horror show. But the choreography is outstanding. It’s jiggly cam but it shows how it can be done for fights. Instead of hiding inadequate fight moves, when done well like this it totally accents the action and you can still see the expertise if you’re quick enough. There are some decent one-ers - it’s kickboxing with gun play and it got two solid chuckles out of me when the ultravi got extreme. It’s inventive, sometimes funny (getting kicked in the balls is a running joke), and often the punchline is a bit of gore. A lot of headshot and amputated limbs. I admire Timo’s fights because they often cross the line into something sickening like half a head blown off. So many groin shots. 

D00M recommended but be warned that this is all about the ultravi. 

Four assassins raised from

[Greg]

But what about the ultravi. Since I'm nauseous already, would now be a good time to watch?

[Drunk Monk]

I confess that I fell asleep before completing my last sentence in my post above. I have no idea what I was going to say now...

RE: Ultravi - here are other Timo flicks reviewed here:
http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=4016
http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=4671

Timo's other genre outside of action is horror. I've yet to watch any of those.

Here's the full trailer...

The Big 4 Full Trailer. Releases Dec 15 (Yes, I saw DM's post)

[Greg]

You fell asleep while writing but still were cognizant enough to post the reply?

[Drunk Monk]

Funny thing... I remember dozing off mid sentence whilst posting my initial post on this and dreaming something strange and then waking with a start when I nearly dropped my lIephone and thinking 'I hope I didn't write that out in my post but I'm just going to bail here' then putting my phone on my nightstand and falling asleep. 

I also remembering wanting to say that any flick that has a climactic fight set to Beethoven is okay by me. I think it was the 4th symphony but I can't remember now. 

I suspect that you'll hate this movie for its blatant disregard of story logic. The opening chapter about the raid on the organ harvesting orphanage makes no sense at all - it's just an excuse for unrestrained unapologetic gratuitous ultravi...and a shallow excuse at that. The rest of the film follows along that same line of thinking. I suspect the only D00Mers who will be into this will be me, the Yeti & cf - the D00MultraVI contingent. 

I should warn you that this is long - like 2.5 hours. Not quite Bollywood long, but they could've just chucked out the plot and it would've come in at just over 2 hours, which is generous by my time count.

[Greg]

This one isn't close to the list of movies I will be watching this weekend. Bring on the Banshees of Inniserin which is as far from Ultravi as you can get, I suspect.

[Drunk Monk]

fair

But are you in D00MultraVI? I don't think so. It's a pretty exclusive club. Film students seldom make the cut. 

And by cut, I mean the kind that several an artery and spurts blood up like when you're at twin water fountains and you stop yours suddenly so the pressure shoots fluid up the nose of whoever's drinking at the other fountain.

[cranefly]

This one isn't close to the list of movies I will be watching this weekend. Bring on the Banshees of Inniserin which is as far from Ultravi as you can get, I suspect.

I'm waiting to see Banshees of Inniserin when I'm assured it doesn't have subtitles available.  That way I can more easily make up dialog as I see fit.

As for The Big 4, saw it last night.  It's got some really strange humor.  Not necessarily funny, just strange.  Especially near the end.  The actors seem to be given increasing leeway in their acting towards the end.  It made things more interesting for me, even if it increased the creative dissonance.  Facial reactions, off-hand utterances, some weird take on fingering the trigger hole of a rifle as being equivalent to sex--replete with orgasm, or not.  Nice to see them play a bit while blowing faces half off.

The mermaid character comes in late, and from left field.  But she's a great addition, nearly surpassing the female lead in appeal.

All in all, a fun time was had by all.

[Drunk Monk]

Yay. Mermaids! The sniper trigger sex was pretty kinky and stuck out in my memory too. 

I forgot to mention that the hallucinogenic frog trip was pretty good. The tripper captured the essence of a bad trip. 

I also liked the villainess who we’ll call bazooka girl. The finale cat fight was enjoyable. 

I queued up on of Timo’s horror films which I found on Netflix too. Not sure when I’ll get around to that. I’m not that into horror anymore.

[Drunk Monk]

I did not see this coming...

Dec 21, 2022 12:01am PT

Indonesia’s ‘The Big 4’ Is Netflix’s Second Most Watched Non-English Film

By Patrick Frater

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/indon...235466909/