Headshot sets out its stall straight away, with a frantic and violent prison shoot-out/break-out with a coldly manipulative antagonist and a ridiculous body count, followed by our amnesiac hero washed up unconscious on a beach. The film then follows a very well-worn path of discovering the past through fragmented random flashbacks and a returning set of 'special skills' that ultimately bring together the two opening narrative strands, but it is delivered with an effective and often nasty visceral edge tempered with the occasional softer or humorous moments. The film also boasts a very cool music score that works well. As with The Raid films, Iko Uwais is both sympathetic and charming but also delivers massively on the action front, which he also co-choreographed. There is some creatively-staged mayhem, standouts including Uwais fending off a crazed attacker whist chained to a table and a terrific extended duke-out at a besieged police station, not forgetting the inevitable final showdown. Headshot clearly knows its genre and its audience very well, and whilst it is a shade overlong, if you like Eastern action films, this film certainly delivers the goods.
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