The Furious (Kenji Tanigaki, 2025)

[Finch]

The Furious has issues but the fight scenes are so good that in the moment I didn't care. The five way fight in the police station is a five star all timer where I can't even begin to comprehend how they made it happen without people getting hurt but even before then I already uttered Jesus Christ several times throughout the film.

The choreography is just unbelievable, and there is a sick gag involving a man frozen in a block of ice that made me laugh out loud. You'll know it when you see it. I hope they give Brian Le a film of his own to lead because he is the secret star of the film. You just can't keep this man down. Got big Sammo Hung vibes from him and the way he headbutts people as if they've been hit by a cannon is the chef's kiss.

Apart from the subplot involving timid and/or corrupt cops which takes some momentum out of the film, the film looks a bit drab. You could argue that's aiming for verisimilitude and is also budget driven but it's certainly a far cry from the lavish sets and lighting in the second to forth John Wicks.

In any case, this is a day one purchase on 4K or BD if Lionsgate don't botch the encode. Joe Taslim and Kenji Tanigaki are remaking The Man From Nowhere next and as much as I like the Korean original, I think the remake could be better still (I think Chad Stahelski is remaking it, too).

I honestly can't imagine anything beating The Furious this year for the adrenaline rush of its action scenes. The thought of what these guys could do on a bigger budget and a stronger story gives me goosebumps. Four out of five stars (or should that be sledgehammers?).

[hanshotfirst1138]

The Furious has issues but the fight scenes are so good that in the moment I didn't care. The five way fight in the police station is a five star all timer where I can't even begin to comprehend how they made it happen without people getting hurt but even before then I already uttered Jesus Christ several times throughout the film.

The choreography is just unbelievable, and there is a sick gag involving a man frozen in a block of ice that made me laugh out loud. You'll know it when you see it. I hope they give Brian Le a film of his own to lead because he is the secret star of the film. You just can't keep this man down. Got big Sammo Hung vibes from him and the way he headbutts people as if they've been hit by a cannon is the chef's kiss.

Apart from the subplot involving timid and/or corrupt cops which takes some momentum out of the film, the film looks a bit drab. You could argue that's aiming for verisimilitude and is also budget driven but it's certainly a far cry from the lavish sets and lighting in the second to forth John Wicks.

In any case, this is a day one purchase on 4K or BD if Lionsgate don't botch the encode. Joe Taslim and Kenji Tanigaki are remaking The Man From Nowhere next and as much as I like the Korean original, I think the remake could be better still (I think Chad Stahelski is remaking it, too).

I honestly can't imagine anything beating The Furious this year for the adrenaline rush of its action scenes. The thought of what these guys could do on a bigger budget and a stronger story gives me goosebumps. Four out of five stars (or should that be sledgehammers?).

I saw this last night. It was beyond ridiculous and made The Raid look like a model of restraint. It got to be way too much at time even for an action junkie like me, especially when you had no way of knowing when someone was dead or how to kill them. It would have worked much better as a 90 minute movie. That said, there's some really stunning stuff in it, and that final fight has some long takes which would impress Chad Stahelski and John Woo. Incredible kudos to Meteor Chan and whoever the stedicam guy was, because they were dancing with the actors, its was insane, some 90 second+ takes where I was just flabbergasted. That was Chocolate's Jeeja Yanin in the opening sequence!

[Finch]

I didn't like either Raid film much. I do agree The Furious should have been a bit tighter but it's not crippling like John Wick 4 which ran so long that I started checking the time about 40 mins before the credits rolled.

[wattsup32]

The Furious was not good, even for what it was. It took a simple concept--dad looks for kidnapped daughter and displays overwhelming badassery in the process--and mars it all, including the simplicity, with incompetent execution.

There was one great performance by the man who played Mr. Song, who was terrific, and one good performance by the bow and arrow guy. There was also some fun lighting in a couple of scenes. That is where the good ends.

The remainder was stunningly incompetent, beginning with a baffling screenplay. The plotting was stuffed full of things that come out of nowhere that are supposed to act as . . . I guess . . . character development? Those things happen inside non-sequitur plotting full of non-sequitur dialogue within those scenes. Some of these include a big-bad who, before his "reveal" as the big-bad, had maybe 2 minutes of screen time. The Room's "I got the results of the tests back. I definitely have breast cancer" scene is not more out of place nor more overwrought there than much of what happens here.

To the writers' credit, they knew they had a real stinker on their hands and signaled that to the viewer early on that viewers should leave. That signal was a flashback to a past event that happened both in the film's time and in viewer time (and I wish was kidding here) ninety seconds before. Any viewer who stuck around after that did so with fair warning of the disappointment to come.

From there we got choreography that tried to infuse Jackie Chan's man-out-of-his-depth goofiness into a deadly-serious script and performances, resulting in an evenness that became unintentional comedy. The number of times I laughed out loud at how stupidly this was executed almost made the waste of time worth it. I mean, if you can't laugh at an out-of-the-blue (90 percent of the way through) comic book style five-panel frame whose usage as a technique was never even hinted at before and never used again, why bother going to a theater? The unintentional comedy only underscores how out of place the goofiness is. The magic of Chan's goofiness is in his how unsuited his characters are for the moment; they're just doing the best they can with what is available to them, and they exhibit a vulnerability that highlights how unsuited they are for the moment. Almost every character in The Furious is presented as an expert fighter, but the fight choreography has them make decisions even a mid-level fighter would never make. So, it all comes off as confused in its execution.

That confusion comes through in the camera work and editing, neither of which seems to understand what the other is doing. And, that's understandable because neither seems to even understand what it, itself, is doing.

Heed my warning and do not waste your time with this. However, if you don't heed my warning, just know that the film will give you another warning to leave the theater about 20 minutes in. After that, you're on your own.

[mfunk9786]

Man, I could not have had more of a different time with The Furious. Lots of laughs, excellent fight choreography, a real sense of fighting against a force of evil that goes all the way to the top. And the 'bow and arrow guy' is the impeccably frightening Yayan Ruhian, who was also great in The Raid. This variety of martial arts revenge film isn't for everyone, but I'd say The Furious is going to go down as one of the stronger recent examples of one. Also quite rare (and delightful, though YMMV) to see kids trained so well for some fight scenes in key moments.

[wattsup32]

Man, I could not have had more of a different time with The Furious. Lots of laughs, excellent fight choreography, a real sense of fighting against a force of evil that goes all the way to the top. And the 'bow and arrow guy' is the impeccably frightening Yayan Ruhian, who was also great in The Raid. This variety of martial arts revenge film isn't for everyone, but I'd say The Furious is going to go down as one of the stronger recent examples of one. Also quite rare (and delightful, though YMMV) to see kids trained so well for some fight scenes in key moments.

I am on board with you in your assessment of the kids. So, add that to the good. It isn't that this type of martial arts film isn't for me--I've seen and loved several of this type. It's that the execution is so poor.

But, I'm glad you and others enjoyed it because that bodes well for more like this getting made.

[Finch]

I get criticisms of the script but to say that the cinematographer and editor didn't understand what the cheoreographer set out to do just feels plainly untrue to me, especially with the camera work.