Steineded How sad is this?

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

orfredericks Yuda lived in Sumatra with his family, who were hardworking and worked on the rice field. However, Yuda had grown up and it was time to move on and find his own way in life and he wanted to become a silat teacher in Jakarta, but the challenges he faces will make him disregard his dream and help a girl and her younger brother get away from the evils of treacherous men who threaten their well being. Hence, the journey that Yuda takes is action packed, benevolent, and heroic. I really liked this film because it truly shows the compassion of people from different standpoints in life. For example, Yuda decides to help Astri by pushing off her boss as he abuses her and takes advantage of her weekly salary from work in which would have been disregarded due to the fact she needed any kind of money anyways to support herself and her little brother. The only part of the film I did not understand was the business that Ratger and his partner were apart of and what their relationship was to each other. The elements of the film that indicated that it was not American, were the elements of the lack of technology and hybrid sport-like cars and high end city like structures and no explosions of any sort. The global perspective that I received from the film Merantau was that not every family decides to keep all their children and I don't mean by abortion. Moreover, in the film Astri tells Yuda that her family abandoned her and her little brother and kept their other 3 siblings and left them to starve and die and I would have never imagined that a parent could succumb to that thought process. If I were to put myself into any of the characters shoes it would have been Yuda and I would not have done anything differently because of the lack of police or societal presence to help 2 young people like this and I would not have changed the ending either because it shows the raw imagery of what a hero actually is and most heroes are martyrs.

magonzalez-15762 I thought that Merantau was a wonderful film to watch. I enjoyed the martial arts aspect of it extremely, and I felt that the story was well written as well. I found it interesting that they decided to take on the idea of human trafficking. I felt like it tied in well with the story and had an accurate portrayal of the situation on human trafficking. However, I felt like I wasn't fully understanding the situation. One thing that threw me off was the lack of fire arms in the group of human traffickers. I felt like more than two of them would have guns, and the fact that they completely emptied their clips into a man seemed strange and abnormal.

Cameron Crawford A boy named Yuda goes on an Indonesian traditional journey, called Merantau. He goes to a city, to go on his journey, trying to practice a martial arts style called silat. He finds a girl named Astri and a boy named Adit, who are siblings. Adit takes Yuda's wallet and tries to evade him, but Yuda eventually catches him in an alley. This is where Yuda first finds Astri. Astri is being whored out by a pimp, who is being ruled by a higher European pimp. Yuda beats up the pimp, freeing Astri from his confines. When Astri is kidnapped, Yuda goes on a mission, fighting bad guys to rescue her. There is a large human trafficking ring, that is being lead by the 2 Europeans, which Yuda takes down. When Yuda finally takes out all the human traffickers, the European stabs him with a metal pole, killing him. Astri wants to save him, but it is too far gone. Yuda gives Astri a necklace and tells her to take it to his family. Then Astri goes to Yuda's hometown, where she lives with Yuda's family with Adit.This film was a very cheesy, Asian, martial arts film. The plot was very tacky, deriving back to a warrior saving the princess. Without a happy ending, the only good parts about this film were the funny fight scenes, with bad sound effects and ragdolls. Another enjoyable part about this movie were the poor lip syncing, especially on Astri.

Sean Newgent A young man flies from the nest in order to become an adult. It's a pretty meager story for a martial arts film, one that comes up a lot (Ong Bak is a good example). He goes to the big city, gets into trouble, and winds up fighting for his life against a bunch of crooks. There's nothing here you haven't seen before, nor any reason to be watching this for plot. What you're here for, of course, is the action.As a traditional martial arts film, it spends a lot of time getting to the action and then the movie is nothing but. If you can get past the initial thirty minute slump, the film has some pretty decent action, though nothing I can seriously recommend watching the whole film for. In my experience, a lot of martial arts films can easily be cast aside thanks to the advent of Youtube. Now all you have to do is look the movie up, watch the fight scene that is the only fantastic part, and move on with your life. And sadly, I feel Merantau is one of those movies. Despite the brilliant directing on the part of Evans (he knows how to film an action scene without all the shakiness, as well as play the camera to the movement taking place) it's a very average, run-of-the-mill piece. The brutal action is kind of there, though you'll find that only one or two knock-outs are worthy of getting a rewind or a jaw-drop.So go to Youtube, watch the final fight, and otherwise there is no real reason to buy this. It's a very soft rent if you're itching for action, but could easily be a pass for most others. I'll give it a rent though, especially if you're a fan of The Raid.