The Big Four

Four retired assassins spring back into action when they cross paths with a straight-arrow cop who is determined to track down an elusive murderer that has something to do with their shared past.

To be clear about Timo Tjahjanto’s latest action extravaganza… The Big 4 is no The Night Comes For Us, but also, that’s probably an unfair standard.

For the most part, I enjoy these kinds of movies, and Timo Tjahjanto, with his ridiculously chaotic and comedically gory approach to action films, definitely knows how to deliver, but to be clear, in general, this particular type of action film—a John Wick-type of shoot ‘em up after chugging 2 liters of Mountain Dew—is not my most favorite sub-genre of action movies. So, bear that in mind when I say that, while The Big 4 was pretty fun, and definitely kickass, to me, like with most of these types of movies, it seemed about 30 to 45 minutes too long, and was bogged down by way too much talky-talky-talky.

The Big 4 is about a family of adopted siblings and vigilante assassins… Topan, the main ass-kicker, Alpha, the wild chick, Jenggo, the marksman monk, and Pelor, who mostly seems to be a dumb but lucky bruiser, all of whom kick a ton of ass in all sorts of different ways on a pretty regular basis… but when their adoptive Father is killed, they must team up with Dina, their cop sister, who doesn’t approve of her siblings’ free-wheeling ass-kicking ways, in order to kick even more ass than usual, but this time when they kick those asses… it’s for Dad.

This is why you’re watching, you’re not here for the story. Anyone who pretends otherwise is not a person to be trusted. And believe me, I definitely enjoyed all of the myriad ways they shoot, stab, explode, crush, and/or just plain old beat the crap out of a seemingly endless wave of aggressive redshirts, all of whom are apparently unfazed by the literal piles of bodies made out of the redshirts who rushed in before them. It was all fun to watch, and often surprisingly awesome, but again, if I’m being honest, by the time we reach the Big Boss fight, I’m a little over it. But at the same time, this particular Big Boss fight was pretty god damned good.

Like I said at the start, while it’s no The Night Comes For Us, and it’s definitely not The Raid, or The Raid 2, still…

The Big 4 is pretty fun.