Anggy Umbara’s new movie, 5 Cowok Jagoan (Five Mighty Guys), is a confident outing for the director who is known for combining colloquial, hilarious lines with hapless characters.

5 Cowok Jagoan (Five Mighty Guys) is a movie by film director Anggy Umbara, the son of director Danu Umbara of 1980’s movie 5 Cewek Jagoan (Five Mighty Girls).

Anggy said his new movie – which he co-wrote with Arie Kriting and was executive-produced by Anita Whora and Gobind Punjabi — was a new saga that served as the prequel to his father’s movie. And somehow, 5 Cowok Jagoan involves zombies.

This is the latest and confident outing from the director, whose previous films include Comic 8 and Warkop DKI Reborn: Jangkrik Boss! Part 1, a reboot of the Warkop DKI series.

5 Cowok Jagoan opens in an laboratory where one of the scientists, Dewi (Tika Bravani), is abducted by a tattooed henchman with superhuman skills. Yanto (Ario Bayu), who’s fallen for Dewi, witnesses her kidnapping and subsequently plots her rescue with the help of his friends Dedy (Dwi Sasono), Danu (Arifin Putra), Reva (Cornelio Sunny) and Lilo (Muhadkly Acho).

During a break-in in the lair of the main criminal, Kolonel Demon (Verdi Solaiman), they discover that the Kolonel intends to capitalize on a serum that will convert human beings into venomous, bile-filled zombies.

Similar to World War Z, or Shaun of the Dead before it, the zombies in 5 Cowok Jagoan serve as the catalyst for the characters’ development.

Inept and unseemly, the clumsiness of its characters and their lack of self-righteousness that often heightens the reality of action movies draw the most laughs from the audience.

There’s a reference to FTV — SCTV’s romantic film series — and when the jokes land, they’re often rooted in the groundedness of imperceptible premises (Zombies! Death by getting punched super hard!), but not all of them hit the mark; at times, they’re flat and contrived.

One of the strengths of 5 Cowok Jagoan is the closer view into the characters’ backgrounds.

Danu, for instance, who dabbles in eerie martial arts, is heavily focused on cashing out on his “skills”; Dedy goes home to a nagging wife, but is ultimately a doting family man; Lilo is a mama’s boy who has stepped out of his comfort zone by the time the credits roll. And then there’s Yanto, helplessly lovestruck.

The film’s other strength is in its intentional kitsch. First, just look at the cartoonish costumes the characters wear. And because this is an action movie, there are fights. Lots and lots of them. Sometimes there’s blood in the mix, too. And somehow, again, it involves zombies.

The action scenes are also handled with care — when Reva, the peace-loving shaman-like character who goes into overdrive when he’s hit on the head, does his fight scenes along with the fearless Debby (Nirina Zubir), we realize that the movie doesn’t traffic in an overt parody of action films: It is an action film.

Though a lot more extraneous with its comedy, 5 Cowok Jagoan reminds me of the 2010 film Kick-Ass. Debby and Chloë Grace Moretz’s Hit-Girl have a lot in common: Their striking hair color and cold, bloodthirsty demeanors. Actress Nirina really commits to her role, jettisoning her comedic chops as opposed to Arifin, who’s known for playing more serious roles, such as in The Raid or The Night Comes for Us.

What 5 Cowok Jagoan achieves are the laughs. It may not be perfect: The wordplay — a common device in Indonesian comedies — such as jamblang/jablay (water apple/prostitute) or Pikachu/Picasso are a little cloying and, like I mentioned earlier, sometimes the jokes fall flat.

Though the stakes are never high, each caricatured character established in the movie is given a chance to flesh themselves out, ultimately lending depth to 5 Cowok Jagoan.

— Photos courtesy of MVP Indonesia

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Cowok Jagoan

(MVP Indonesia, 110 minutes)

Directed by Anggy Umbara

Cast: Ario Bayu, Dwi Sasono, Tika Bravani, Nirina Zubir, Arifin Putra, Muhadkly Acho, Cornelio Sunny

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