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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 fight sequences with lots of breezy banter and a cartoonish action 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 business 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 trained 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 black market organ harvesters, we see that really they only kill for a cause. “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 forward 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 about 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 clean to the cop he’s crushed on for years about 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 group has to work out the kinks of their thorny familial bonds even as Antonio’s private army keeps making things difficult. And once it turns out that Antonio himself has links to Petrus’s death – that would explain why he’s trying to murder them – the reunited Big 4 and Officer Dina have to team up, arm up, and take the fight straight to the arms dealer and his goons.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Timo Tjahjanto earned strong 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 complete and total brutality. Tjahjanto also collaborated with filmmaker Gareth Evans on a segment of the 2013 horror anthology V/H/S/2, and it’s Evans’ The Raid and Raid 2 that provide 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 quickly 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 other instance, but for their common enemy trying to kill everybody in the immediate 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 action movies and stock ephemera like the slow-motion badass walk, the slow-motion slide across a floor while shooting at henchmen, and the slow-motion gear-up scene, it feels fine to be a viewer and follow 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 fights 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 paused for its fists and kicks to fly or numerous large caliber weapons to be fired, it comes alive with the kind of kinetic and hyper-violent action for which he’s come to be known. It’s also helpful that the actors here have a handle on how to make all of this entertaining. Abimana Aryasatya is terrific as Topan, giving him a goodhearted edge that often transforms the violence he unleashes into a form of righteous 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 provide 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 screen, all of our principals are given opportunities to show off their close 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 usual 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.
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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Big 4’ on Netflix, An Indonesian Action Film Filled To The Brim With Blood And Guns – Decider
