REVIEW: The Big 4 Makes Slapstick Into Action

Timo Tjahjanto knows genre film. The Indonesian filmmaker crafted one of the most brutal and beautiful stories with The Night Comes For Us, and now, he’s back with violence that radiates humor from its core. Loud, absurd, bloody, and a total thrill ride, The Big 4, directed by Tjahjanto and written by Tjahjanto and Johanna Wattimena, is easily one of the best action films on Netflix.

In it, Dina (Putri Marino), a by-the-book detective, investigates the death of her surprise father and follows a clue to a remote tropical island. But when she arrives at the island, there are murderers on her heels, leading her to find out her father isn’t who she thought. More importantly, she has foster siblings thanks to her dad’s true identity as a leader of a group of assassins. Now hunted by his enemies, she has to team up with the crooks her father had trained, the titular big four: Topan (Abimana Aryasatya), Alpha (Lutesha), Jenggo (Arie Kriting), and Pelor (Kristo Immanuel). All retired from the game; they spring back into action when they cross paths with Dina and find out they’re all connected to the murderer they’ve put in their vengeful crosshairs.

From start to finish, The Big 4 is one big blast. With a cold open action sequence that sets the stage for the humor, fight styles, gunplay, and blood Tjahjanto makes his goal clear. On top of that, this sequence manages to build connections between our characters quickly and with minimal effort, thanks to the actors’ fantastic chemistry. Everything gets set up in the first 10 minutes before the title card pops onto the screen, capturing a grindhouse love of  genre. From disguises to gadgets and gigantic explosions, The Big 4 is anything but subtle. And somehow, it also manages to deliver dynamic characters across each of the titular group and of course, Dina.

Additionally, I have to note that Tjahjanto remains one of the best directors when it comes to directing women in action. Not just as snipers or accessories or spies, but as brutal killers taking on men twice their size and doing so with competence that overcomes uneven matches. Alpha is a fantastic and dangerous character and a large reason why her brothers stay alive, consistently. She has her own personality and her own grit. That said, the most fleshed-out of all of the characters is Topan, for reasons I’ll leave unspoiled.

Our heroes are of course the selling point of the film but The Big 4’s villains are also top notch in all of their absurdity.

Tjahjanto understands the body in a way at different levels throughout the film. He understands what you can do with the body to make it funny, how you can dismember it and blow it up to make an action-packed impact. And of course, he understands how to shoot fight sequences with enough breathing room to see the bodies of his actors, highlighting their physicality and strength. Often throughout The Big 4 each of these elements are pulled together to create a spectacle that bites as much as it makes you laugh.

The Big 4 honestly captures the high bar that action comedies made in the 1980s. Sure we’ve seen Tjahjanto tell an emotional story with action, but comedy takes a different balance than aiming for a bleak ending. Eccentric when it has to be and surprisingly heartfelt when it comes to found-family; it’s too bad that the film came out so late in the year because it easily fits the bill for one of the top action films of the year. The Big 4 is irreverent, bloody, eccentric, electric, and captures exploitation cinema with every scene. Timo Tjahjanto never misses.

The Big 4 is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix.