“Mayhem!” Theatrical Poster
Coming soon from Xavier Gens – director of Gangs of London and Hitman – is Mayhem! (aka Farang), a French martial arts actioner starring Nassim Lyes (The Last Mercenary), Olivier Gourmet (Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1), Vithaya Pansringarm (Attrition) and Loryn Nounay (Carrément craignos).
Sam is a professional boxer about to get released from prison. While on parole, his past catches up with him and he has no choice but to flee. Five years later, he has rebuilt a simple life on an exotic island in Thailand with his wife and her daughter, but when he gets blackmailed by a dangerous local godfather, he must embark on a dangerous drug smuggling mission which results in a tragedy. Now has only one purpose: to seek merciless vengeance.
Mayhem! is getting a limited theatrical release in U.S. theaters on January 5, 2024, so check your local listings. Until then, don’t miss the New Fight Clip, followed by another recent clip, as well as IFC Films actioned packed Trailer:
It’s about time we had another French martial arts film! (We just need a Savate film that’s unrelated to the 1995 one)
In addition to The Raid movies, it looks like they’re also taking cues from The Night Comes For Us with the way various objects are being used to ruin people.
The French DVD and Blu is available now, but there’s going to be a USA release in early 2024 according to various sources.
The great Jude Poyer is also an action choreographer for this film!
Don’t keep your hopes too high for this movie, it tried really hard to be the new Ong Bak/Tom yum goong/The Raid/The night comes for us, but for me it fell flat, burdened by all those ambitions. Unfortunately the fights tried really hard to be something special, but their structure appeared bland and unimpressive, despite few sparks here and there, the narrative was simple, but it had this familiarity of following our main character across Thailand asking more or less the same question, then beating up all the low level thugs in the area, then move elsewhere and repeating the process again, until the final confrontation.
A pity really, as the main actor shows some potential, but it was utterly wasted in a poor display of fight, which resembled of other fights before.
The gritty nature of each fight scene was outweighed by the complete lack (or ignorance) of real danger for the protagonist, who was having a leisurely stroll amongst the opponents, none of which presented some threat to him or his skills.
Maybe I am quite harsh, but that’s what I saw in this movie, which sadly could have been way better…
Nothing wrong with being harsh! =) Yeah, that trailer looked derivative rather than inspired by.
Don’t take Kiril into consideration. He saw a whole different film. The main character gets beaten up a lot and despite the cliches sprinkled out, this is well worth a watch.
Dear Rocks, I saw what I saw, and I stand by my opinion, I was trying to like it, but not even the gore and the choreography managed to impress me a lot. I apologise if my opinion annoyed you, and you were expecting praise and glorified comment on this unremarkable film, which for me tried so hard to be hard-core, that actually came out as hilarious.
French guy here, saw the movie about one week ago, and honestly it’s pretty cool but cannot compare to the raid.
The overal tone is good with a “keep it simple and true” effect on dialogue and screen effect. It has standard plot point with cool but brief combat (lots of impact though) that delves into movies like the night comes for us when it comes to escalating the violence with gore.
Won’t come as memorable though, at least it didn”t for me, but had a good time.
Why can’t they try to make a FRENCH action movie with a history set in France?
Oh yeah, it’s more exotic and seeing Asian guys getting destroyed by a French man is “cool” (yeah we can beat … … out of those yellow dudes).
So far, reviews have been saying that not only is Mayhem not like The Raid, but that comparing it to Indonesia’s film does it a disservice since it wasn’t trying to be like it and the film makers knew they wouldn’t beat the other guys at their own game.
The reviews also say that most of the action occurs towards the middle of the movie with the best being saved for the end. With Jude Poyer being one of the action directors, he brought a Hong Kong flavor to the movie ad it seems like he and Xavier Gens wanted the action to look more like Gangs of London.
I hope it all turns out well!
The long stretches between action sequences are cliched and boring. Action is brutal but not especially memorable. The trailer makes it look better than it is. Glad I watched on streaming.
I finally found time to rent Farang, and I liked it. I’m glad I read the reviews that confirm it’s not like The Raid films.
As I hoped, the action is closer to Gangs of London with the scrappiness and brutality. There’s enough martial arts mixed in to appreciate the skill involved. Nassim Lyes does a good job, and he presents himself as someone worth investing in with how he wants to live an honest life. It actually works to the movie’s benefit that most of the action is reserved for when it’s time for him to seek retribution.
Of course there is the minor frustrating aspect where Nassim should have known that getting involved with gangsters is what got him in trouble before the movie started, but if he hadn’t agreed to do a favor for the villain, there would be no movie. I wish there was a way around that.
Farang is unique in that it’s a French production but with mostly a Thai cast. This could have been reworked into a Tony Jaa film, but interestingly, even though Nassim does Muay Thai, we don’t see a lot of that. His fighting involves plenty of punches and kicks, but you’re not going to recognize forms and “technique” like in Tony’s films.
The rhythm and timing is very much on point. The action looks like controlled chaos, and follows the beat very well. I hope we see more from this team, and I’m sure they can deliver more goods.