This shot-in-Indonesia action flick suffers from a low budget, much lower than usual for the genre, which means that you don't get the extensive, extended and crowd-pleasing fight choreography you've seen in other Indonesian flicks like THE RAID. It's not about the action at all really, although there are a lot of shooting scenes and the like; the violence comes in short bursts and is kept off screen at times. As an action lover I found that a shame, although MESSAGE MAN still works thanks to a fast pace and interesting storyline, which mixes together bits of the BOURNE films and the JOHN WICK saga. Our Aussie hero is a laidback dude until people traffickers show up to cause trouble, and it doesn't stop from there. It's not an amazing film, but it does have beautiful locations and a story that never flags, so it's worth a look.
Review of Message Man
