The Furious Film Review: Nonstop Action

The Furious prioritizes fights and stunts over almost everything else, but it backs itself up with some of the best action you’ll ever see.

There is so much to say about the ins and outs of this film, and yet it can all be boiled down to a very simple question: do you want to watch some of the best martial arts and stunt work you’ll ever see, and almost nothing else whatsoever? Then you’re in luck.

The Furious is about Wang Wei (Xie Miao), an ordinary tradesman whose daughter (Yang Enyou) is kidnapped by human traffickers, and Navin (Joe Taslim, of Mortal Kombat II), a journalist whose wife was taken from him by the same people. The two team up to save Wang’s daughter with the mastery of kung fu they both just so happen to have, going up against the evil organization members who – what a coincidence – also know kung fu. 

I hope you like watching kung fu, because that’s what you’re getting for about 75% of this movie’s runtime. That is not an exaggeration. The Furious is determined to barrel its way through fight after fight after fight, most of which go on for ridiculously long. What would be a finishing blow in a normal action movie is just another drop in the bucket here, and it only gets more outlandish the further it goes. So, you would think that the fighting itself is so spectacular and blood-pumping that you have no choice but to love every minute of it… And you’d be correct.

These action sequences are phenomenal. The cast literally throw themselves into some of the fastest movements, punches, spins, and ducks I’ve ever seen in a movie, almost to a superhuman degree that shouldn’t be physically possible. There’s a danger of action this fast and precise looking more like an overly stylistic dance, but The Furious combines that level of fluidity with sweaty, hard-hitting brutality and blood. And very rarely do the camerawork or editing get in the way of showing these skills off.

I give my most enthused kudos to every actor who pulled all this off. Miao and Taslim have the most to do as the leads, with Miao being tossed off trucks and dragged through dirt as early as the 15-minute mark. Yayan Ruhian (Boy Kills World) plays the designated swordsman on the villain team, and I’ve grown so excited every time he pops up in a movie like this. Special shoutout to Brian Le, whom you may have seen put a trophy inside a certain orifice in Everything Everywhere All at Once. He turns himself into a savage, nonstop animal that you’ll gladly watch bulldoze anything in his path. 

The Furious uses every – and I mean every – excuse it can muster up for a brawl. Our two heroes don’t realize they’re on the same side? Have them fight. Wang is scoping out a nightclub for information? Ditch the stealthy approach and have him go wild almost right away. All our major villains are gathered together? Good thing one of them has a reason to hate and battle the others. In most movies, this kind of writing would get under my skin. We need more time to sit with the characters, I’d say, or we need to stop going from scene to scene without any rests.

What The Furious does right is have every fight be unique and relevant. The locations are standard, but everyone has their own distinct movements and choreography, and they take advantage of literally every opportunity given where they’re duking it out. The intensity of people fighting for their loved ones is never lost either, so you’re at least invested on that base level in a coherent, if derivative, story. The plot even throws in a curveball by having something happen about halfway through that I would have expected to see at the end of the movie. 

Seriously, the action is so nonstop that it’s jarring when the characters actually say something, simply because you forget what human speech sounds like half the time. Although another reason is that the acting itself is not great. Most English deliveries sound like either first takes or an attempt at a second language, and you can clearly tell there was overdubbing from the sound mixing. (The lips match up, though; this is not a Madame Web situation.) The dialogue never goes beyond stock lines and placeholder-worthy material, barely any time is given to the bond between Wang and his daughter, and some people make really stupid choices.

Okay, yeah, the story may be a problem. As much as I love The Furious, it’s a bit of a mess when the fists aren’t flying. It’s almost like the film knew that and tried to have as little talking as possible, but you can still tell. We may have a contender for dumbest police force in modern movie history, for example, as these authorities are so ignorant to the obvious problems right in front of them that I assumed they were all in cahoots with the traffickers. You also get hints of a backstory that explain how Wang became the skilled warrior he is, but it’s only teased without any answers because… I guess it doesn’t matter. He can kick ass because you want to see him do so.

I think some people will give The Furious flak for the same reasons I’ve given some other movies flak. Namely, it’s really light on plot, what plot it does have is clunky, and it clearly gives the action and spectacle top priority over anything else. To paraphrase Succession, fighting is the one thing this movie knows how to do. But it won me over by being really, really outstanding at doing that one thing. Director Kenji Tanigaki got the best physical actors, stunt coordinators, choreographers, and set planners possible, made full use of them, and wound up with the best mindless action flick The Furious could hope to be.

Will The Furious be seen as one of the best films of the year? Not by me. But it’s by far one of the most purely entertaining films I’ve seen in several years, and I had a big dumb grin on my face through a lot of the runtime. The action really is that good, and the movie has the confidence to know and embrace its strengths. If I’m giddy during a film about child abduction, either it’s doing something right or I need to ask myself questions. 

The Furious will be released in US theatres on June 12, 2026.