Bullet Points: Foxtrot Six
The recent Indonesian imprint on the movie scene seems to have come mostly by way of anyone involved in The Raid series. Whether it be from actors Iko Uwais, and Joe Taslim, or from director Timo Tjahjanto, the Asian islands have given more than their fair share of action packed movies over the past half-dozen years. So picture my excitement when I spotted Foxtrot Six, looking all badass and action-packed. I just had to get a taste of it to see if it would hold up to the recent successes of its predecessors.
Synopsis: A former marine and his friends struggle to save Indonesia from a ruthless party leader.
- Future crisis: Foxtrot Six opens up in the present day only to swiftly bring us into the future of 2031. Does it make much difference on the story? Not really. I think the one thing it does help with is to let us know that our main character spent some time in the military, once had a love (who isn’t around anymore), and that there is a global hunger crisis that is effecting Indonesia in a big way. So big, in fact, that a new ruling party called Piranas have taken over and don’t really give two shits about the people they govern. Kinda like real politicians, I guess.
- Main Angga: Oka Antara plays our main character, Angga, and I will go ahead and answer the question that is on everyone’s mind: yes, Antara was in The Raid 2. At least that was my first question when I looked into exactly who was in Foxtrot Six. I had to be sure that this movie would come with some downright disgusting (in a good way) action and I wasn’t let down. Is Antara Iko Uwais? No. But he is a solid second.
- I would do anything for love: Apparently leaving your position high up in the government for a former flame who disappeared over a decade ago isn’t something that Angga won’t do for love. He rode his military career to a position as a Congressman. Where he went about living the good life and plowing the local babes. Now, he has found himself on the doorstep of the Piranas with a potential seat at the table. Seems to me that the 3 minute introduction to Julie Estelle’s (also in The Raid 2!) character wouldn’t be enough to pull him away. Sadly, I am wrong and Angga soon runs off with his rebel lady friend.
- Recruitment: Now that Angga is all in on the downfall of the Piranas, he must go back and try to get all of his old comrades from the Marines to join him. It’s not an easy task as most of them have moved on from their days as military men but you can probably guess that they all end up re-joining him and none of them have lost a step.
- Suicide squad: The men go for an all out assault on the Piranas tower after they are attacked and nearly destroyed by the main baddie called The Wolf. He also used to serve with Angga but now he’s the top dog when it comes to security and he doesn’t care at all how the job gets done as long as it does. We see some of the lengths he’s willing to go to complete his missions and you could say that “it ain’t good for the rebels”. The fact that the film takes place slightly into the future gives them the ability to use some cool shit like a stealth poncho like some space Frodo Baggins and some super cool mech thingys. Those types of things are never better than a well-placed blade in the throat, but they sure look pretty for a while.
- Action overload: The final 40 minutes is made up mostly of a balls-to-the-wall assault on the aforementioned tower. Angga and his boys get to blow up all sorts of shit and The Wolf truly learns that his minions are totally worthless. As happens in most of these types of films, it comes down to a couple of knife fights between the main characters. I’d love to say that everything works in the film during the final assault but the villains are too awful at killing and the good guys pretty much run roughshod over them.
The Verdict: Foxtrot Six trades some big action sequences over the nearly two hour runtime for a lack of character depth. Most of the film follows our former Marine – turned Congressman – turned rebel but we don’t get much in the way of motive other than he was once in love. The relationships needed lots of work for me to believe that a guy would make it to where he was in life just to give it up for an old flame. The final half of the film essentially turns into a suicide mission on the evil regime’s lair and it mostly delivers. The team kill tons of faceless cronies before our hero goes face to face with his old nemesis. Mostly fun action sequences make this film watchable and while I wasn’t invested in any of the characters’ survival, I had fun watching the amount of mayhem put on screen by first time director Randy Korompis.
