This year has been a great one for action, with the likes of Furiosa, Kill, Monkey Man, and Rebel Ridge, and more lighting up the screen and giving fans exactly what they want. But while you may have already picked your favorite, you may need to adjust that list, as The Shadow Strays promises to be one of the best (if not the best) action movies of 2024. The revenge epic is now available to stream on Netflix and has landed a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 82%, with critics heaping praise on the martial arts spectacle and brutal violence on display courtesy of The Night Comes for Us director Timo Tjahjanto.
Beginning with Jonathon Wilson of Ready Steady Cut, who awards The Shadow Strays a near-perfect 4/5 and praises Tjahjanto for giving him everything he could possibly want in a vicious action thriller.
“Sometimes I feel like Timo Tjahjanto was put on earth just for me. The Indonesian filmmaker only seems interested in making movies that appeal directly to my personal sensibilities – action and horror with turbo-charged kineticism, balletic choreography, and psychotic splatter-violence. The Shadow Strays is exactly this. It’s wonderful.”
Chris Evangelista of Slashfilm echoes these sentiments, though did have some issues with the movie’s lengthy runtime. Regardless, they conclude that it’s all “a hell of a lot of fun.”
“No one is doing it like Timo Tjahjanto. The Indonesian filmmaker creates movies that make you say “Hell yeah,” and his latest digital blood-drenched opus, “The Shadow Strays,” seems designed to both excite and exhaust the viewer. It’s loaded with killer, ultra-violent action scenes that just keep going, and going, and going, to the point where everything starts to get bogged down. That’s not to say the film isn’t a hell of a lot of fun — action fans will get what they want here.”
Alex Maidy of JoBlo calls The Shadow Strays the most “brutal, bloody, and badass” action movies of the year.
“The Shadow Strays is one of the better action movies to come out this year and will have your jaw repeatedly dropping as each sequence outdoes the previous one.”
The praise continues courtesy of X/Twitter user @FakeRobHunter, who calls The Shadow Strays “another f*cking masterclass in action filmmaking” and highlights a “ferociously good performance by Aurora Ribero who pairs a stellar action debut with intense heart. Pure bliss.” Fellow action fan @zkleverton adds, “In a very strong year for action films this one stands firmly at the top for me. A symphony of beautiful carnage and snarling pathos.”
Timo Tjahjanto Continues To Deliver Unique Action Movie Thrills
Barry Hertz of Globe and Mail, meanwhile, commended Tjahjanto for his unique approach to martial arts action and on-screen violence.
“Finding new and inventively cruel ways to shuffle henchmen off this mortal coil, the director levels up his trademark use of the silat style of martial arts, overkilling the concept of overkill.”
While Katie Rife of AV Club praised the sheer level of creativity on display, as well as the “furious” nature of The Shadow Stray’s action movie delights.
“Creative methods of killing and maiming are Tjahjanto’s specialty, and they fly at the viewer at a furious pace.”
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Even the more negative (or “rotten”) reviews found much to enjoy in the thrilling action sequences, despite the “bloated” runtime. But, really, can you have too much of a good thing? As Casey Chong of Casey’s Movie Mania puts it…
“Timo Tjahjanto’s blood-soaked action thriller packs enough visceral thrills but suffers from a bloated length.”
Written and directed by Timo Tjahjanto, The Shadow Strays stars Aurora Ribero, Hana Malasan, Ali Fikry, Adipati Dolken, and Andri Mashadi. Check out the official synopsis below before hurrying to fire up the now-acclaimed action thriller on Netflix.
“Codename 13, a 17-year-old trained assassin is under suspension because of a sloppy mission in Japan. The girl built a conscience when she met Monji, an 11 year old boy who lost his mother to a crime syndicate. When Monji is captured, 13 is hellbent on setting a path of destruction to rescue the boy, including going against her mentor and the organization who hires her, the Shadow.”