By Mark Saldana
Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars)
This year, Fantastic Fest screened a few movies headed for Netflix, but none were like this blood diamond from Indonesia. Even though the festival didn’t receive another insane Raid film from Gareth Evans, Timo Tjahjanto’s The Night Comes For Us proved to be the next best thing. As I sat through this wild, bloody and gruesome action fest, I could definitely hear the audience’s gasps, cheers and other sounds of awe and excitement and I even retorted with some noises of my own. This action flick might be light on story, but the colorful characters, the crazy level of violence, and the superbly executed action nearly make up for the writing’s shortcomings. In fact, as one beholds the intense cornucopia of savagery and brutality, the story itself almost becomes meaningless.
Iko Uwais (The Raid, The Raid 2) stars as Arian, a skilled Triad soldier tasked with the retrieval of rogue enforcer Ito (Joe Taslim) and the girl he has chosen to protect. Joe and Arian may as well be brothers, as both grew up together and rose in the ranks of organized crime to take their current respective places. When Joe can no longer deal out any more gruesome killings, he spares the life of an innocent child and goes AWOL. This, of course, does not sit well with the boss (Sunny Pang), thus he sends his top soldier Arian to handle the matter. Joe has some mad skills of his own, though, and some trusted associates who are willing to help. Things will have to get way worse before they get better and it is best for all innocent people to stay put of the way.
Written and directed by Tjahjanto, The Night Comes For Us, is an awe-inspiring, bloody, action extravaganza to experience. The crazy movie is absolutely bonkers with action and gore that it found a proper home at Fantastic Fest. But the film is not all gushing splatters and laughs. The stunt team that choreographed and executed the stunts deserve standing ovations across the globe for their truly amazing work. The acting is adequate and appropriate for this type of film, and the real scene-stealing standout has to be Zack Lee who is a joy to watch in all of his scenes.
The movie begins its Netflix run on October 19 and definitely deserves mass attention. It is a movie that begs to be watched with a group of friends who love this stuff. I had the distinct pleasure of seeing it at Fantastic Fest where it received adoration and praise. It is not simply an entertaining and amusing movie, it is a pulpy entertainment phenomenon.