You know what’s great? Action movies! When I say action movies, I mean movies like The Furious, not the CG-leaden movies from Hollywood. The problem with Hollywood movies is that they are all ‘safe’. Movies like The Furious take safe and beat it unconscious.
I’m not going to list the cast, as they are all new to me, apart from Yayan ‘Mad Dog’ Ruhian.
The Story
The Furious keeps things simple:
A father fights fiercely against ruthless kidnappers to save his abducted daughter.
At first, we see a female reporter trying to infiltrate a child smuggling gang. She knows it’s dangerous but has to do something. Won’t you please think of children!
She gets caught escaping with a young kid, and the kid gets shot with an arrow by Mad Dog. This movie doesn’t pull any punches; which should be the tag line of the movie.
We then meet Wang (Miao Xie) and Rainy (Enyou Yang), his daughter. He’s a handyman and just wants to spend time with his little girl. While out and about, Rainy gets kidnapped and thrown in the back of a truck. Wang does his best to rescue her, but with no luck.
He goes to the police, but again, no luck; he’s going to have to find her himself.
We also meet Navin (Joe Taslim), who’s meeting up with a gangster, trying to meet Mr Big in the organisation. It was Navin’s wife that got caught at the beginning of the movie, and he wants her back.
Wang and Navin meet up, fight at first, but then realise they are both after the same thing: find their loved ones and destroy the gang.
The Action
As I said, the tagline of the movie should be ‘Doesn’t pull any punches’, and man alive, you feel every punch! You cannot help but compare this movie to The Raid. The Raid is possibly one of the best action movies ever made. I will die on that hill.
The style of The Furious is the same as The Raid, but the story is different. The action, though, it’s hardcore. I thought to myself, “It’s only been on 10 minutes, and I’ve seen about 23 HOLY SHIT moments!” Who knew a hammer could be so dangerous?
The fighting is spectacularly done. The choreography is on par with watching a Gene Kelly movie. You know the actors have been through hell and high water to get the action right, and it really works.
Sure, it’s all over-the-top, and no fights in real life go the way they do in the movie, but that’s half the fun. If you want to see two drunk guys trying to ‘sweep the leg’, you can find that crap on social media.
If you want to see a bunch of actors taking fights to a level you can’t even imagine, The Furious is the way to go. It makes John Wick look like Toy Story. OK, so maybe not that much, but it’s good. The final fight is something I haven’t seen before, complex in a way that’s pretty spectacular.
You know the actors probably spent more time in the hospital than they did on set. I would be amazed if there weren’t a few broken bones on set. You know in Hollywood, everything is so ‘safe’, that actors are never, ever in danger. This is not the case with this movie.
Overall
There isn’t much to dive into with a movie like The Furious; as I said, it keeps things simple: a man wants to get his daughter back and will kick ass to do it.
The story is solid, and I really found myself rooting for Wang. When he tries to help his daughter, when she’s first kidnapped, I was really hoping he would save her. However, the movie has to happen, so he didn’t.
There are minor issues, though. There are some minor bits of dodgy CG, but not enough to take you out of the movie. However, when they do use it, it’s so an actor doesn’t die.
Also, there is a bit of woke in it, with one policewoman. She’s the one that tries to help Wang at first, and then kind of saves the day at the end. I did roll my eyes a little, but let it slide, because the action was so good. Also, Rainy is a bit too good as well; she saves the day a bit as well, but again, I let it slide.
Being very overly picky, there’s one shot towards the end that does take you out of the movie, but in a good way. I won’t spoil it, but you know it when you see it.
Since I still know people that won’t watch The Raid ‘bEcAuSe iT HaS SubTiTlEs’; The Furious has learnt from this. I’d say about 70% of the movie is in English, with only a few subtitles, including ones for Wang, who’s mute in the movie.
Some of the English acting is not the best, but again, you can forgive it.
If you liked The Raid, you’ll love The Furious. If you haven’t seen The Raid, watch it, and this! It’s an action movie dialled up to 11, and it’s friggin’ awesome.
The Furious is on VoD.
