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Headshot (2016) - Directed by The Mo Brothers starring Iko Uwais

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in Modern Martial Arts Cinema 1986-Present

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One Armed Boxer

One Armed Boxer

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Apart from the several supporting roles Iko Uwais has on his plate at the moment in international productions like 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' and 'Mile 22', fans will be happy to hear that his next leading role will be in local production 'Headshot'.

 

Not to be confused with the Thai movie of the same name, 'Headshot' is being directed by The Mo Brothers, who did great work on both 'Macabre' and 'Killers', and will co-star Julie Estelle (Hammer Girl!) and Sunny Pang.  Uwais and his stunt team will be handling the choreography.

 

The plot sounds very 'The Bourne Identity'-esque, as Uwais will play a man who washes ashore with no memory due to a serious head injuy, and has to deal with a past that comes back to haunt him.  Hopefully, by 'dealing' it means a whole heap of fight action.  Fingers crossed this doesn't go the same direction as 'The Night Comes for Us'.

 

 

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One Armed Boxer
One Armed Boxer

I got through watching this one today thanks to Arrow’s UK Blu-ray, and it definitely delivered the goods. The best action movies are always the ones were you’re not just waiting for the next action s

KUNG FU BOB
KUNG FU BOB

There's some coverage/update on the film over at cityonfire.com: http://cityonfire.com/the-raids-iko-uwais-is-going-for-a-headshot/, and they posted this killer photo of the Indonesian edition of ROLL

OpiumKungFuCracker
OpiumKungFuCracker

Hiroki Goto is in this movie and he has a fight scene with Iko Uwais. Just that alone is worth the price of admission. If you don't know who Hiroki Goto is he is a Japanese Wrestler that wrestles in N

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ShaOW!linDude

ShaOW!linDude

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Cool beans! Don't think I've heard about this project. Always ready for Iko to throwdown.

One thing of note in Leeder's article toward the end: The film is set to shoot at Infinite Studios in Bataam, and is scheduled for release in 2016. Everyone at Impact wishes the team the very best for the shoot. If that wasn't enough to get excited about Timo has also hinted that the previously shelved The Night Comes For Uswith Joe Taslim, may not be dead and gone as many have thought.

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KUNG FU BOB

KUNG FU BOB

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There's some coverage/update on the film over at cityonfire.com: http://cityonfire.com/the-raids-iko-uwais-is-going-for-a-headshot/, and they posted this killer photo of the Indonesian edition of ROLLING STONE magazine. Wish this was on the US cover... If so, I'd be buying my first issue of it in several decades.

 

Rolling Stone Cover Desember 2016.jpg

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OpiumKungFuCracker

OpiumKungFuCracker

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Hiroki Goto is in this movie and he has a fight scene with Iko Uwais. Just that alone is worth the price of admission. If you don't know who Hiroki Goto is he is a Japanese Wrestler that wrestles in New Japan Pro Wrestling and is the current Neverweight Open Champion. 

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mpm74

mpm74

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Caught this one on Amazon VOD just now and thought it was pretty good! :) Best 6.99 I ever spent. 

And no, it's not better than The Raid 2, but I thought it was better than The Raid. But it's definitely a MUST SEE if you're a fan of Iko Uwais and co. 

Watch it (no brainer!) and don't wait for Frank Grillo's remake!

 

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D1 Ma

D1 Ma

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First of all, thanks to Amazon for bringing the movie to the Western audiences so fast!

I don't know why people keep bringing up THE RAID, when talking about the HEADSHOT. Just because it stars Iko?( Kinda like comparing World War Z and 7 years in Tibet, just because of Brad Pitt)

The Raid was and still is one of the best action movies of the last 10-15yrs and is a significant milestone in the history of action cinema. The Raid 2 was a week and pretentious attempt to cash in on the success of the first movie and it totally deserved to bomb at the box-office.( I know for many it sounds like sacrilege, but it's just my opinion)

Now we got another Iko's movie, directed by two guys who supposed to be good directors, although I personally wasn't impressed with their previous work.

The movies starts pretty good and goes pretty strong for the first hour. The pacing is good, the story is OK and Iko looks better, more mature and more confident in his acting. The second half, however, gets kinda slow. The story gets boring and worst of all, the action isn't getting better. The movie ISN'T a martial arts film. The fights lack any intricate choreography, instead relying on brutality and gore. I'm not complaining here, just having a nice choreography is never bad. Honestly, I was getting more and more bored as the movie progressed. I can complain a lot here about many things, but just let me say, the movie is not perfect and very easily could've been much, much better. I thought it didn't deserve all the hype.

Probably, my main concern is the fact that a lot of scenes look very unbelievable and unplausible

Still, it's a decent Iko's vehicle, nothing to be ashamed of (unlike horrible Tony Jaa's Skin Trade). I don't think anybody will say it's a waste of time or it's a bad movie. Slightly above average movie, marred by a weak direction, not the best camerawork during the fights, and rather bland choreography. I liked it, but not loved it. 3.5 out of 5 :)

Edited by D1 Ma
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mpm74

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I don't know why people keep bringing up THE RAID, when talking about the HEADSHOT. Just because it stars Iko?( Kinda like comparing World War Z and 7 years in Tibet, just because of Brad Pitt)

The reason people compare is because the record has been set HIGH with Iko's previous films. A staple. A turning point. A high note. Kind of like how people were comparing Tom-Yum-Goong to Ong Bak when Tony Jaa broke new ground. Everything Iko does will be compared to The Raid for years to come. Same with Gareth Evans, which is probably why he's doing Apostle, instead of the another martial arts film. 

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The Raid was and still is one of the best action movies of the last 10-15yrs and is a significant milestone in the history of action cinema. The Raid 2 was a week and pretentious attempt to cash in on the success of the first movie and it totally deserved to bomb at the box-office.( I know for many it sounds like sacrilege, but it's just my opinion)

Opposite for me. I liked Raid 2 and thought the first one was average as a whole. It peaked early, so the rest of it was so so... 

Quote

Still, it's a decent Iko's vehicle, nothing to be ashamed of (unlike horrible Tony Jaa's Skin Trade). I don't think anybody will say it's a waste of time or it's a bad movie. Slightly above average movie, marred by a weak direction, not the best camerawork during the fights, and rather bland choreography. I liked it, but not loved it.

I somewhat agree with you. But I think the choreography is good, not great, but definitely not bland. Not as polished as The Raid (there's that comparison you love). I think the "bland" choreography you speak of was maybe on purpose: they're going for a different feel. A more "brawl" feel than that connected choreography. I feel, especially at the beginning, that Iko's character didn't quite remember how to fight due to his amnesia, but he still knew how to survive instinctively, which is why the choreography gets more defined as the film goes on and finds more of himself. 

Another strong possibility is the lack of Yayan Ruhian. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first film where Ruhian's input is absent. 

Some of the camera work was sloppy, as you said. Overall, the film's strong points outdo its low points. Minor issues, but no complaints. :)

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Now we got another Iko's movie, directed by two guys who supposed to be good directors, although I personally wasn't impressed with their previous work.

Have you seen Macabre? Based on this alone, The Mo Brothers have my respect. 

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ShaOW!linDude

ShaOW!linDude

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13 hours ago, D1 Ma said:

Still, it's a decent Iko's vehicle, nothing to be ashamed of (unlike horrible Tony Jaa's Skin Trade).

Have you seen Tony Jaa's Tom Yum Goong 2 aka The Protector 2 yet? It was shot in 3D = disastrous, dumb, & disappointing. I found Skin Trade to be a far better film than that was, with better grounded choreography.

 

On 3/4/2017 at 0:45 AM, mpm74 said:

Caught this one on Amazon VOD just now and thought it was pretty good! :) Best 6.99 I ever spent.

Okay, you have me tempted to drop the bucks and do the same thing, however I know that's money I could put towards the DVD. Now I'm in a quandary.:angry

3 hours ago, mpm74 said:

Another strong possibility is the lack of Yayan Ruhian. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first film where Ruhian's input is absent. 

That is an interesting point.

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D1 Ma

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5 hours ago, mpm74 said:

I somewhat agree with you. But I think the choreography is good, not great, but definitely not bland. Not as polished as The Raid (there's that comparison you love). I think the "bland" choreography you speak of was maybe on purpose: they're going for a different feel. A more "brawl" feel than that connected choreography. I feel, especially at the beginning, that Iko's character didn't quite remember how to fight due to his amnesia, but he still knew how to survive instinctively, which is why the choreography gets more defined as the film goes on and finds more of himself. 

Another strong possibility is the lack of Yayan Ruhian. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first film where Ruhian's input is absent. 

I understand that the choreo was intentionally done that way. The characters not supposed to be polished martial artists, rather wild animals. Still, it could've been done better and more intricate. I too, think that absence of Yayan left its mark

Quote

Some of the camera work was sloppy, as you said. Overall, the film's strong points outdo its low points. Minor issues, but no complaints. :)

Have you seen Macabre? Based on this alone, The Mo Brothers have my respect. 

That 's what pissed me of the most - inconsistency of camera work. Some action was shot just right and then we have some scenes where it was done absolutely horrible. I blame directors for that.

(I've seen Killers and thought it was crap. MACABRE wasn't better. No wonder they both have 6.5 -6.4 rating on imdb)

Again, it's not a bad movie by any means, but as I said, it could've been so much better with just minor adjustments, like tighter editing, better choreo,  a bit more plausible script and so on

1 hour ago, ShaOW!linDude said:

Have you seen Tony Jaa's Tom Yum Goong 2 aka The Protector 2 yet? It was shot in 3D = disastrous, dumb, & disappointing. I found Skin Trade to be a far better film than that was, with better grounded choreography.

 

 

It's funny, just two days before I watched Headshot I was re-watching TYG2 :)

While it was disappointingly bad, I still place it higher than Skin Trade which was just a waste of celluloid, IMO ( well, maybe with exception of Tony Jaa - MJW fight ;)

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Drunken Monk

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This film was fantastic. Such a great ride from start to finish, with amazing action sequences races scattered throughout.

It does "borrow" some things from "The Raid 2" but it's a completely different film. Iko really shows he can act in this one, too.

I love the action scenes. They were so brutal and so well shot. I'll definitely be picking this one up on Blu Ray.

Edited by Drunken Monk
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mark187

mark187

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US DVD is out June 13 but no bluray apparently. U.K. Bluray is out June 5 from Arrow films. Anybody know it'll be Region B or All Region??

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KUNG FU BOB

KUNG FU BOB

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No way I'm settling for DVD on this one. Thanks for nothing US distributors! :wondering

My son and I will each be buying the UK Blu-ray release. Wonder why it's still not showing up on Arrow's website though? It's not even in the "coming soon" section and the release date is in two weeks. Good news though- it's up for pre-order on AmazonUK right now for only $13.00!

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Karlos

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https://www.amazon.co.uk/Headshot-Blu-ray-Iko-Uwais/dp/B01MRCV6B6/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1495275938&sr=1-1&keywords=headshot

I've looked and there appears to be no Region A BD available at all.

I'm pretty sure the Arrow UK disc will be Region B locked, but not 100% sure as of yet.  Hang fire.

All in all, kinda odd there's no US Blu of this.

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