The Big 4 (2022) Poster

(2022)

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6/10
Great action, but the rest's a drag
Leofwine_draca27 December 2022
I'd count the director's THE NIGHT COMES FOR US as one of my all-time favourite movies, an absolutely blistering attack on the senses and all-out martial arts hit. This follow-up adopts an action comedy template and has more of that top action direction, but at the same time it somehow misses the mark. At two and a half hours in length, the action hits but only occupies a third of that running time. The rest is made up of inane comedy and no story. The characters are very limited here, the actors unknown and lacking gravitas, and some of them cross over into being annoying. The gory FX and fight choreography are as great as ever, but I wish the rest wasn't such a drag.
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6/10
The Big 4 gets a not-so-big 5.5 from me.
BA_Harrison6 April 2023
Timo Tjahjanto is one of the best action directors in the business. If you need convincing, just watch Headshot (2016) and The Night Comes For Us (2018), both of which deliver amazing fight choreography and brutal violence aplenty.

Unfortunately, Timo doesn't appear to be so great at comedy, of which there is lots in The Big 4; his attempts at humour in this film are pretty terrible, making it quite tedious at times, especially whenever the film takes a break from the kicking and punching and shooting and explosions.

Things kick off in fine form, as the titular quartet of vigilantes make a gang of evil organ traffickers pay the price for their crimes. It's gleefully OTT, the screen painted red with the blood of the guilty. The foursome -- Topan (Abimana Aryasatya), Jenggo (Arie Kriting), Alpha (Lutesha) and Pelor (Kristo Immanuel) -- have been trained as assassins by their adoptive father Petrus, whose real daughter, policewoman Dina (Putri Marino), has no idea about her dad's other 'children'.

Three years later, Petrus is murdered, and Dina investigates, discovering her father's secret...

The comedy kicks in when Dina encounters her 'brothers and sister', who have now retired from the killing business, and the film suffers for it, the silliness being more irritating than funny. Of course, the film ends with a jaw-dropping action set-piece in which Tjahjanto piles on the stylish ultra-violence with aplomb, but it's not easy to forget all of the daft nonsense that precedes it.

9/10 for the action, 2/10 for the rest, which averages out at 5.5/10 (rounded up to 6 for IMDb).
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5/10
An outdated action-comedy.
Top_Dawg_Critic12 January 2023
This was just unnecessarily too long, and the humor was just too infantile, forced and outdated. The sad part is that it could've easily been much better had some of the cheesy dialog been omitted, and the entire film's 141 min runtime cut down to no more than 90 mins. The long dragged out and mostly predictable and silly scenes took away from what started as a decent story, then went full on stink-cheese with the lame outdated humor, and cliches. The casting and performances were decent for the most part, but their infantile dialogue and demeanors took away much of any caring for their characters. The action was hit and miss, although there were some cool choreographed fights in the third act. Had this been shorter, I may have said it's a decent one-time watch, but as is, I felt it was a waste of my time and not worth even the one-time watch.
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6/10
Bloody silly entertainer.
chand-suhas4 January 2023
The Big 4 are the adopted children of Petrus, who has trained them to be perfect assassins well atleast 3 of them as the youngest one mostly is a bait. Petrus is murdered leading to the big 4 to go on hiding while his actual daughter becomes a police officer and is obsessed to solve his murder. How the daughter teams up with the 4 to take revenge on their father's killer, forms rest of the story.

The tone never gets serious with constant funny lines thrown around. Many jokes don't land correctly, but the loud comedy somehow carries the story forward while the bloody action set pieces take care of the rest. Much of the jokes fall under the silly category but the action set pieces gets more fun whenever they get silly which should be credited for the innovativeness. The story is built up for a sequel so the main reason for the conflict is still kept unrevealed.
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7/10
This movie has everything excepr Gun Recoil
sansanxaverius-7688617 December 2022
Solid movie with action, gore CGI, good humor, but it doesn't have gun recoil whatsoever in the movie. Everyone knows that when you fire a gun, it will kick back, it is called recoil, but this movie fails to show that simple detail, even when the skinny girl fires the bazooka, no kick back whatsoever, it is a freaking bazooka!!

Sometimes, good attention to details will make it a great movie, I dont know why am I so bothered about this "receh" detail. But overall this is a good movie, story is simple, comedy is good, cinematography is top notch. Putri Marino character is angry all the time I dont know why tho...
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6/10
The 2 main casts are the key....
fvhimawan19 December 2022
Nothing new in terms of storyline, we've seen a lot of this kind of story in Hollywood movies, but I have to admit that the CGI and the martial choreography is good and nice to watch.

Abimana and Putri Marino are the main casts that really standout, well done...!!

The other casts seem to be occupied with the script that makes them unable to develop characters.

Honestly, I do like the harsh words used in this movie, although a little cultural shock for me, but it relevant to the characters and the kind of life they are in.

The comedy in the scripts are quite good, it do tickles and make me smile and laugh.
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4/10
Tedious film
crom-dubh28 December 2022
Tjahjanto's The Night Comes For Us is one of the best, most brutal action films I've seen in recent years, and Headshot was also a solid contribution to the genre, so I expected quite a lot more from this.

Sometimes comedy is very unique to certain cultures and doesn't really translate well. I don't know if that's the case here or if it was just not well-written, but most of the comedic parts (which make up the bulk of the film) are really cringe-inducing and not entertaining. The parts where the comedy mixed with the action were somewhat more successful. But overall there is just not enough action here.

At almost 2 and a half hours, the film is simply too long. They could have cut half an hour and it still would have been excessive. Tonally, the film is all over the place, and not in a way that was very satisfying. The best parts were those in which the violence was hilariously and intentionally over-the-top. But there were really only a couple of scenes like that in the entire film, and the "down time" between those moments was frankly difficult to sit through.

They clearly set this up for a sequel. I do think there's potential there, but only if it's a lot more focused than this first film and better prioritizes the action over the silly character moments that don't really work.
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10/10
A Breath of fresh air
roscar-1174719 December 2022
I love the Raid movies. I love the Night Comes For Us. I love Merantau. I enjoyed Headshot. But those movies were pretty much the same in tone and style. They were all quite grim, to be blunt. This film, however is refreshing thanks to a healthy dose of comedy. There are a lot of jokes, and they all manage to land. The fights are also very well done. A notable is a hilarious slapstick fight that feels like a bloody Jackie Chan fight scene. The acting is very good overall, with great chemistry among the cast. The villain is also hilarious and menacing. It also has some surprisingly emotional moments.

To sum up, great acting, great fight scenes, and a solid sense of humor. Definitely worth checking out.
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6/10
An action-comedy that mostly stays faithful to its genres! [+64%]
arungeorge1320 December 2022
The Big 4 doesn't quite have the storytelling finesse of Timo's earlier works, yet it's a fun little action romp. The plot is just an excuse for the lead characters (retired assassins and a cop) to go after a rival gang and find their mentor's murderer, cooking up some fantastic set-pieces along the way. The humor works when it's not trying to be too goofy. One instance of it not working is that "possessed" scene, which almost looks like a badly done parody of Timo's own May the Devil Take You. That said, I loved how Timo attributed some quirks to each of his leads. Topan (Abimana Aryasatya) has a crush on his mentor's daughter Dina (Putri Marino), Jenggo (Arie Kriting) is high on his sniper rifle (which he refers to as his girlfriend), Alpha (Lutesha) comes up with an explosive gas cylinder known as Lucifer's Fart 3000 (LOL!), and Pelor (Kristo Immanuel) is always the "bait" whenever the gang infiltrates a baddie hideout.

All of this plays into the film's screenplay and character decisions. But, who can look past the fun action choreography? Every time a set-piece breaks out, you know it's going to surprise you in more ways than one. That's the beauty of watching a Timo Tjahjanto actioner. It's deranged and atmospheric, with Batara Goempar's camera constantly on the move, either capturing gory kills or exciting knife/gun/fist fights. The cast make most of the emotional bits work, and while you wouldn't consider anything here as deeply moving, it's good enough to make you care for their happy ending. Timo leaves room for a sequel, and although The Big 4 is no The Night Comes for Us, it offers exactly what it says it does.
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3/10
I thought the movie would be better released in 2012
adtkch66616 December 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Actually, I had zero expectations for this movie after seeing the first trailer. But considering that this movie was directed by Timo, I'm sure that at least it is fun to watch. But sadly, I was wrong. This is Timo's worst movie ever.

I think The Big 4 is a bit out of date in terms of story and comedy. I know it's just a matter of taste, but the most of the comedy elements in this movie are so cringe-worthy (except for the Sunarto scene at the end). On the other hand, the action scenes and gore elements really help the quality of this movie, even though the action scenes also tend to be generic.

Overall, The Big 4 is awkward in many aspects. Outdated storylines, generic action scenes, and cringe-inducing dialogue made me forget that this movie was created by Timo.
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8/10
Fun flick
alexkzapf21 January 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Loved the movie. Great action. Amazing comedy. Quite a bit of gore But. That is to be expected. You can feel the hits when they fight. Hollywood could learn a thing or two from these Indonesian flicks. There is plenty of great choreography. No subversion to be seen or had. So to speak. Just a well put together film. Likeable characters hood conclusion. For some. It may be a bit long. I think, that's a good thing. In a day and age, when you see the message, in so many movies, this is a breath of fresh air. Hope we get to see more films like this. If you like or lived any of the raid movies or headshot, the night comes for us. You'll love this.
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6/10
Serviceable.
W011y4m516 January 2023
This is what you'd get if you attempted to recreate a cinematic action blockbuster like "John Wick" on a fraction of the budget with a childlike filmmaker who brazenly possesses less half the maturity & ten times the determination to have fun on set... What I mean to say's "The Big 4" is therefore a messy, juvenile, yet somewhat decent action flick that doesn't take itself too seriously, but neither does it actively try to do anything original; I get the movie's parodying clichéd genre tropes by featuring them in a self aware way but it gets so bogged down with fitting all the spoofs in, the jokes often feel dragged out & over-long since they take forever to get to the punchline.

The fight choreography is great however & the camera work's inventive. Though saying that, I must concede the stylised visuals (which this relies so heavily upon for entertainment) do frequently fall flat, considering the cheapness of their composition is blatantly apparent throughout.

As for the emotional journey of the characters... I'd comment on them if I thought those who intend to watch genuinely cared. Alas, to view something as unrepentantly violent as this, I know proper development is not the main selling point.
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1/10
Literally a joke
sandyprawira0611 January 2023
Waste of my 2.5 hours.

Idk who's writting the script and the plot, if its a 5 years old then yes, i think this movie should get an Oscar.

Dull, unnecessary long stories with a very vulgar dialogue, gore scene, too much balls kicking scene, 0 logical scene and not to mention the acting seems exaggerating and seriously you call that a humor? Barely laugh.

As I continue to watch minutes after minutes feels like this movie is trying to insult my intelligence as a human being.

I dont understand why people still giving this movie a 6 in average or even 10.

Overall a really good movie, to makes you fell sleep.

Thank you very much, i dont need a sleeping pill tonight.
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Nice film
mbiey-informatics18 December 2022
Nice film, with good actor.. for indonesian movies, is very amazing and awesome,. The way director took a film so coll and cinemart..

That's what i kept on saying when watching the movie.

It was a thrilling watch, that's for sure. The action was solidly well choregraphed; the filmatography was briliant. The movie somehow balanced the gore and comedy seemlessly; and CGI showed some high quality work. The story was well told; the plot was straight to the point, without any unnecessary scenes (don't you hate it when they tend to drag it out? I mean, just get to the point!). The cast was great! They really delivered. I've been following Kristo Immanuel for a while, and I was really glad to see him in bigger projects like this one (and really nailed it!).

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I was laughing and biting my nails at the same time. Indonesian movies have come a long way -- I mean, the talent 💯
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7/10
What an entertaining ride!
SoumikBanerjee199622 July 2023
Although the action here is a bit ragged but is extremely rewarding, loaded with raw energy and quirky mannerisms that I am sure will appeal to a broader audience. The humour, leaving aside a few portions, is effective too and will have its intended influence.

For me, it's the set of characters, though, who left the greater impression; all five members (including the daughter) were given enough space to shine, and they gave it all to make their presence known!

Now, the overstated humour may get on someone's nerves; the exaggerated swagger could also become a reason for nuisance. However, still, no sane mind could refute the film's inherent ability to deliver pure, unadulterated entertainment.
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7/10
Comedic fun and full of action!
blu_crumbs4 January 2023
Four words to describe this movie: comical, violent, enjoyable, and SURANTO (you would understand if you watched this movie)!!! I have watched a couple of movies by Timo Tjahjanto, specifically "The Night Comes For Us" and "May the Devil Take You," and was hyped for The Big Four. I watched this film with my partner, who does not even speak or understand Bahasa Indonesia, so I was worried that he would not understand the humor; however, he mentioned that it was hilarious, and I caught him laughing multiple times. The acting of the cast was phenomenal, and they had so much chemistry with each other. The action scenes, especially the fighting choreography, were suspenseful and, in a way, eye-pleasing. To top it all off, the gore, blood, and special effects in this film were surprisingly good, and they were exactly what I expected from Tjahjanto's films. The downside of The Big Four was that it was slow at times, and the movie itself was not entirely sure what it wanted to be as it did not merge genres together as elegantly as other movies would. However, I would like to watch a sequel to this movie and am looking forward to it. This is also a great movie for first-time endeavours into Indonesian movies. To conclude, Tjanjanto has a special eye for horror but could improve more in his action films.
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7/10
Delivers on Its Promise of Over-the-Top Action and Gore
FilmFanatic202329 December 2022
A wild and absurd action extravaganza that manages to balance its chaotic and comedic approach with solid acting and a well-choreographed final act. The film opens with a shocking and gruesome sequence set in an orphanage used for organ harvesting, introducing us to the quartet of vigilante assassins at the heart of the story. The film then jumps three years ahead, as the team is reunited by Dina (Putri Marino), the daughter of their former member Petrus (Budi Ros), who was murdered in the prologue.

As they are pursued by Petrus' killer (Martino Lio) and his team, "The Big 4" delivers on its promise of over-the-top action and gore, with Tjahjanto's signature reckless energy reminiscent of The Three Stooges with bazookas. The cast is solid, with standout performances from Lio, Marino, and Abimana Aryasatya as the team's leader, Topan.

While the plot may be a bit talky and drag on for its 141-minute runtime, "The Big 4" more than makes up for it with its ridiculous and thrilling final act. Tjahjanto's unique and chaotic vision for action filmmaking is on full display here, and it's hard to imagine how a potential sequel could go even bigger. Overall, "The Big 4" is a wild and entertaining ride for fans of over-the-top action.
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2/10
I can't believe I watched 2.5 hrs of this
jaswatts-3764014 January 2023
Warning: Spoilers
There are lots of good elements of the plot. It is unfortunately that they are few and far between. The scenes that are suppose to evoke emotions are performed poorly with weak emotion and over acting.

The plot is sound, unfortunately there are too many lots scenes that lead nowhere, go nowhere and are just a drag on the plot and pacing.

The acting, where there are some good pieces here and there, they are ruined with bits of injected humor. While the actors have had success in other shows, this is not it.

Finally, most of the characters aren't grown, they are shallow and superficially introduced. One one or two actually have a real introduction and even then, its not really that good.

Overall... this is an overlong, complicated and weak movie.
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9/10
another very good Indonesian action film
monibhebhe25 December 2022
Actually I was pessimistic about this one film but after watching it I think this is a great action movie. This film is a very good action comedy film timo is very brave to take an idea like this and he succeeded. Each has its own uniqueness and that makes this film even more fun coupled with the comedy and silliness of the actors who invite laughter. But besides that, it turns out that Timo has not forgotten his trademark, namely the gore scene which is neatly packaged here. The only drawback is scoring for some disturbing scenes. But besides all that, big 4 is an entertaining film and is definitely worth watching in your leisure time. But I suggest not watching it with children.
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7/10
Solid Action Comedy - Great martial arts fight scenes
Scodelli21 March 2023
I watched this movie on a youtuber recommendation.

I was a little hesitant to watch it because of the low IMDB rating but I gave it a shot. And it's a good movie.

I like films like Ongback 2, The Raid: Redemption, The Night Comes For Us, etc..

So a movie like this appeals to me.

However asian action films are not immune to the mediocre-ness western action films crank out, unfortunately.

But this turned out to be a great action comedy.

The fight choreography is great. The story, though simple, was effective.

They managed to tie some drama elements into the action. The family togetherness comes across nicely.

The martial arts/fight scenes are on point. But expect a hollywood-esque action extravanga. This is a comedy. It's not meant to be realistic. Like so many "hollywood" movies we know and love. Just have fun with it.

It's self aware and it doesn't detract from the movie whatsoever. And there is plenty of martial arts action which is just as good as any decent Tony Jaa or Iko Uwais movie. The fight scenes are on point.

I actually found this film quite funny. I guess the comedy didn't land for some western viewers. But for me, it was actually pretty funny and I laughed out loud a couple times.

The comedy is not asian specific. It's things that would be funny in amy movie regardless of where it was made.

I am quite used to asian cinema but this is funny. And as I said, the humor is not culturally specific.

It's also a very violent movie. There is gore and you may be pleased to know there are alot of practical effects!

There is nothing profound about this movie. The story is relatively simple and perhaps not that original, although the strong 'family' theme is here.

But it's fun. It's is well scripted(in my opinion). Well acted. And the pacing is great for a movie like this. It is never boring or slow.

It's a great movie for a Friday night.
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3/10
When director think average IQ is under 70
stylish-818688 January 2023
Another stupid film by Timo. This movie is obviously trying to makes B movie ambience (or is it not?). Stupid scenes, very bad plot-it's like some teenage boy write the script-, beyond logic dialogue, etc will exposed to you for more than 2 hours duration movie.

Just because strong languages and gore/violence all over the film, Timo think this movie will be a good movie. He even don't care about logics, comedy, characters chemistry or any common sense. He just put it all together, mix it. F* everything else.

This movie is like trying to offend your intellegence. I feel like being mocked by watching such a stupid movie, almost as bad as Tommy Wiseau The Room, but still this movie can't be compare to that masterpiece. I hope Timo can have time to introspection and start to realize that He's no good being a director. Maybe he's more fit being action advisor or director assistance.

Please throw away the idea to filming sequel of this disaster, because obviously at the last scene we see the true villain is shown. Please, know your place, you're creating bad movie by same formula over and over again. Or maybe you should create B movie seriously.
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10/10
This is a funny action comedy
megadekha3 January 2023
I am surprised on how good this movie is. I am Indonesian, and I watched this with my boyfriend (dutch), we used English audio, not gonna lie, they were using the perfect dubs. The intonations are great like they are using Cultural Interpreters, because the intonations quite represents Indonesians. The movie itself was really funny and great! I cant believe they were using a good effects and such. The casts were also crazy🤣 the plots are good, I cant wait to see the part 2 of this movie! As an Indonesian, I am proud of what they have made about this film. If you havent watched it, just watch it. It is worth to watch😅
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7/10
First of all, you don't have to show gun recoil to have a good movie.
gkbk11 January 2023
Bazookas do not have recoil. It is a rocket inside a tube and the back of the tube is open.

The movie gets a little silly in parts, and most of the violence is done with a comedic flare, almost slapstick. The movie is filmed in Bali, but it is not clear that the movie takes place in Bali. There are several references to Indonesian culture and products that will not be understood by Western viewers but they do not track from the movie itself.

There is some perverted sex dialogue about cutting off and eating someone's testicles and an awkward digital sex scene, but overall it is fairly benign. There is a slight Bollywood feel to the movie. The movie could've been edited down from two hours, but overall it makes a good Saturday afternoon movie.
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5/10
So bad it's entertaining
ghatbkk20 December 2022
There are some movies that just are amazing. Then there are some movies that have such bad dialogue, acting, plotting, etc. That they are just cringe. You can't watch them. Then there are a few movies that are so cringe that it can be entertaining. Sometimes, that's intentional, sometimes, it's not. Well, this is one of those movies. The dialogue is terrible, the acting is mediocre, the plot is ridiculous (and obvious), and the twist to set up the next movie is also obvious. And yet, it is entertaining. There is no question that some of the cringe was intentional, but a lot of it probably wasn't. It really is a typical SE Asia soap opera converted into a movie (clearly with the hope of being a series of movies).
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5/10
I gotta say..
cspeng18 December 2022
Some of these international movies have some excessive dubbing humor where it sounds like everyone is whining and it is over the top. Cant really blame the producer for that as it is international and I dont know how the acting would feel if I understood the original language, but it is Kind of hard to watch at times as it feels like I'm watching a knock off of Monte python and the holy grail. I just streamed it in the background as the newer movies are hit or miss lately. If you have nothing else to watch, feel free to give it a go. Atleast the gore and cgi isn't poorly done, so there is some action and entertainment at points in the movie.
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