Buffalo Boys | DVD (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019
On March 5th, 2019, Samuel Goldwyn Films is releasing the DVD for Buffalo Boys, an actioner set during the Dutch occupation of Indonesia.
When all seems lost in a small town overrun by colonialist violence, two revenge-seeking brothers arrive, meting out bloody justice that leaps effortlessly between brutal Western gunslinging and stylized Eastern swordplay.
Directed by Mike Wiluan – producer of Macabre, Headshot and Beyond Skyline – Buffalo Boys stars Ario Bayu (Macabre), Tio Pakusadewo (The Raid 2), Pevita Eileen Pearce (Single), Happy Salma (Capres), Donny Damara (2014), Mikha Tambayong (Fallin’ in Love) and El Manik (Carok)
Buffalo Boys also reunites Wiluan with Headshot cohorts Sunny Pang (The Night Comes for Us) and Zack Lee (The Raid 2) – and features action choreography by Kazu Patrick Tang (Hard Target 2).
Given the consistent output from Indonesian cinema (i.e. Merantau, Macabre, The Raid, The Raid 2, Killers, The Golden Cane Warrior, Headshot and The Night Comes for Us), color us very excited.
If you can’t wait for its March 5th DVD release, Buffalo Boys will play in select Theatres and VOD on January 11th, 2019.
Pre-order Buffalo Boys from Amazon.com today!
I was interested until you mentioned the fight chreographer since its the same guy who worked on The Marine 2 and Hard Target 2, shit action/fights and shit movies/sequels
Haven’t seen enough of his work to have a valid opinion. I actually didn’t think Hard Target 2’s fights were bad… I think it was more of the camera work applied to them (which may or may not have been Patrick Kazu Tang’s fault…).
Kazu Patrick Tang did a solid job on ‘Death Fighter.’
Sunny Pang again? The last movie, on Headshot he was speaking Singlish (Singapore English) and it was absolutely horrible.
Having one guys speak Singlish while everyone else is speaking Indonesian makes no sense at all. Not to mention Pang’s dialog and delivery sounded cheesy and atrocious.
Holy crap. This looks awesome…! I’m all for a martial arts version of ‘The Wild Bunch.’ Color me interested.
Breaking news! The water boy from “The Raid” will be directing the new movie “Bloodbath” with fight choreography from the hairstylists of both “Raid 1” & “Raid 2” movies and it will be starring Bruce Lee’s neighbor as the protagonist & Scott Adkin’s hair waxer as the central villain! Don’t miss it because this means that it’s going to be just like @The Raid”!! Oh and did I mention that it’s presented by Quentin Tarantino’s doctor’s daughter ;-D
Sunny Pang and Zack Lee are two guys they could have done without.
Zack is a mediocre actor, can’t they get some real Indonesians in there! And I don’t want to see Pang unless he’s playing a mute! The only way I’d like to see any of these guys is if they’re in some side role where they don’t talk much and we don’t see them much, The Raid films handled that type of stuff real well.
Reading the other comment about how they got some choreographer from straight-to-DVD action B-movies is worrying too. How come Gareth Evans can find great choreos out of the blue like Uwais and Yayan but every other Indonesian flick has to rely on some shmuck?
Kazu Patrick Kang is a great martial artist and screen fighter. He’s very competent at fight choreography, but unfortunately he doesn’t have a lot of creative freedom and often only gets to follow orders.
Hopefully, he gets to work well with the Indonesian crew. It seems as if they’re like-minded.
I’m certainly intrigued by the trailer.
I don’t know any of these people so I am going in without any preconceived notions. And I think it looks bad-ass! So far, the camera work, action scenes and even the subtitles all look excellent to me. I will happily queue up to watch!
I rented Buffalo Boys on iTunes, and it’s a serviceable flick. Interestingly, a lot of the run time for the movie is focused on the main characters reason for revenge and the sadism of the Dutch colonialists.
Just like Legend of The Fist, the movie doesn’t seem to know if it wants to be a high octane action film or historical film about atrocities. Although Buffalo Boys is a better movie, the portrayal of the villains’ cruelty would go too far sometimes.
Action-wise, the movie measures up despite not being like Gareth Evans and Timo Tjahjanto’s action outings. Mike Wiluan looked to combine High Noon with Sergio Leone, and the gun fights reflect this.
After being saddled with so many garbage projects as an action director, Kazu Patrick Tang’s choreography shines with it’s combination of martial art beat downs and use of blunt objects.
All in all, it’s worth checking out.
Andrew, I watched this the other night and totally agree with your review. I was a little worried at first, because there’s not much action during the first hour of the movie and what little fighting there is felt a little too Hollywood – a lot of quick cuts and what looked like speed ramping.
Fortunately, around the hour mark, the movie picks up and starts to deliver the kind of action you’d expect from an Indonesian movie: relatively long takes, actors performing their own stunts, and hits that sell a sense of impact. *Un*fortunately, this movie has the bad luck to follow “The Night Comes From Us,” so obviously it’s going to pale in comparison. But for me, the Western/martial arts mash-up is still something of a novelty – it’s not like we get one of those every day – so I came away entertained.
Oh yes, I was afraid people wouldn’t give this a chance just because it’s not “balls to the wall” like the aforementioned films.
I thought the non action scenes were well done for the most part, and I was never bored. I just didn’t know where Buffalo Boys was going with it’s direction. I hope Kazu teams up with the crew again for another film. It’d be great if he was in front of the camera was well.
I agree, the direction here feels a little conflicted. I was frequently taken aback by the level of cruelty and sadism on display. I suspect they were trying to shed some light on the history of that time – like many Americans, I’m not terribly familiar with the Dutch’s brutal treatment of Indonesia in the early part of the 20th century – but so much violence is inflicted upon the villagers in the movie, I didn’t feel much catharsis or excitement when the Buffalo Boys finally ride into battle. The whole movie is a bit of a bummer in terms of its tone, and not in the Peckinpah kind of way.
It kind of felt like the filmmakers wanted to make “Once Upon a Time in the West” for Indonesia, but ended up weighing it down with too much rape and murder.
You summed it up really well. Some of the villains I also thought should have gotten worse deaths for what they’ve done.
The movie certainly made me want to read about that time period in Indonesia. I wonder if they view the Dutch like China views the Japanese.