Thunivu (2023)

April 23, 2023 2:04 PM

A gang goes to rob a bank only to find that there's already a criminal mastermind holding it for ransom, but his identities and motives behind the heist remains mysterious. As they plan to collect the bounty and disappear without a trace, their crimes and their past slowly catches up with them.

Wiki: Thunivu (transl. Fortitude) is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language action heist film written and directed by H. Vinoth, and produced by Boney Kapoor. It stars Ajith Kumar in lead role with Manju Warrier, Samuthirakani, John Kokken, Ajay and Veera in supporting roles.

Currently available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

posted by General Malaise (2 comments total)

This is one of the most wonderfully ridiculous movies (spectacles) I have ever seen.

Checked it out after hearing some word of mouth and seeing it featured on the Netflix home screen. Having not seen any of H. Vinoth or Ajith Kumar's (how?) previous stuff, I had very little idea what to expect. At all.

Perhaps the most original take on the classic heist movie I have seen, with some old Hong Kong kung fu movie influences (but with guns), including a so much gratuitous violence that it's laughable (and nearly no gore), hilarious moments especially those punctuated with music cues, a random but fantastic dance number around the halftime point, and Kumar is just electric in the role.

A lot of the effects were pretty low budget, the plot is ridiculous, the ending is absurd, but...I was thoroughly entertained the entire time. Kumar's character's leitmotif is an absolute banger. My only real gripe is Manju Warrier should have been given more to do because she was also superb but largely on the periphery for most of the flick.
posted by General Malaise at 2:11 PM on April 23, 2023

This looks so freaking good. It's very much on my list.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:58 AM on April 24, 2023