The best action movie of the year came early in 2024
polygon.comEvery few years, a new action movie recalibrates expectations for the genre. It happened in 2011 with The Raid: Redemption, it happened in 2014 with John Wick, and it’s about to happen again with Mayhem!, the new revenge thriller from many of the people behind the brilliant first season of Gangs of London.
Mayhem!, whichfirst made waves at Fantasia Fest under its original title, Farang, will be released in U.S. theaters on Jan. 5. Director Xavier Gens, action designer and second unit director Jude Poyer, and star Nassim Lyes have created a kinetic, violent experience that delivers what fans want from this kind of R-rated actioner. Camera movements in perfect concert with the action plus fluid, grounded choreography performed by a former national champion kickboxer combine for a mesmerizing experience that easily would have been the best action movie of 2023 if it had come out just a week earlier.
The action scenes are excellent and vicious, deployed sparingly in the first half of the movie and then at great length in the back half. But brutal violence isn’t what separates Mayhem! from other recent revenge stories: This movieexcels because it takes the time to give specificity and details to its principal characters, making the story and its tragedy more deeply felt.
Samir (Lyes) is an ex-con who fled from France to Thailand after a run-in with his former gang. There, he builds a beautiful life with his wife, Mia (Loryn Nounay), raising a child together and saving money to buy land in order to run a restaurant. But Thailand’s laws and a powerful real estate developer get in the way, forcing Samir into a dangerous situation in his attempts to pursue his family’s dream.
Bad guys attack, loved ones die, Samir wants
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