April 29, 2012

The Quick Word- The Raid: Redemption (2012)

(aka Oh, Hell Yeah!)
Release Date: Click HERE for release info by country.
Written and Directed by: Gareth Evans.
Starring: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, and a scrappy lil' son of a bitch named Yayan Ruhian.

The Raid: Redemption is purely an action movie, no Horror involved at all (unless you count gratuitous violence and copious amounts of blood), but we just had to take a minute to give it some love.

In Horror terms, it's reminiscent of The Horde; where a small group of people are trapped in an apartment building and are forced to fight their way through a crazy horde of zombies in order to escape the death trap they're in. In The Raid, the Zombies are replaced with some vicious Indonesian gangsters, and the people that are trapped and forced to fight their way out are Indonesian Cops. It's also way more violent and bloody, and by the end, I think there were more corpses lying around... more corpses than a Zombie movie. Think about that one for a second.

They have guns, should be no problem...
It's not often that a movie comes a long and just blows us away, especially when we're talking about the action genre; most action flicks are good, but don't really tend to dazzle or excite us. We've seen so many action movies over the years that we're fairly jaded on the subject. I takes a lot to get our fists pumping and even more to get us to hoot and holler during a movie, especially in public... we generally try to behave and not look like super nerds when amongst strangers.

The Raid: Redemption was so awesome that it made us stand up in the theater and throw karate kicks into the air, while yelling "Hyah!" (*That didn't really happen, but in our hearts it did.)

It's really hard to explain how crazy and action packed The Raid truly is, because at some point while trying to explain it, we'd end up sounding like we're just way over exaggerating things. A week removed from seeing The Raid, with emotion taken out of the equation and our heads calm and clear, we can say that the movie was so full of insane, bloody, mind blowing action, that we honestly can't think of any other movie in recent memory that comes close to its level. Not even kinda close.

It's honestly one of the best martial arts flicks we've ever seen. Ever.

The little guy on the right, Mad Dog, not only kicked crazy amounts of ass on screen, but was the movie's fight choreographer too. We love him.
So intense, unrelenting and overtly bloody and violent was The Raid, that a woman in our small screening audience said "I can't take any more, it's exhausting!" She wasn't being dramatic at all. The level of graphic violence in this movie is through the roof, and by the end, even we the audience felt as if we'd been through the same hell that just unfolded on screen.

It seems as though lately if we're in the mood for a really good thriller or action flick, that countries like Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, HK or Japan (among other Asian/Pacific Island countries) are doing them better than anyone else in the world. For an American viewer like me, they films from these countries seem a bit odd or different in some ways, but they always seem to find a way to entertain, dazzle and often times disturb me in great ways. They do it different there, and Hollywood really ought to take note of what makes the average Asian flick so good, and maybe try to emulate them a bit more, instead of remaking already great movies in a sub par way. I shudder to think what Hollywood is going to do to Oldboy, even with Spike Lee at the helm.

Indonesia just gave the world an action masterpiece. You really should go out of your way to find The Raid and enjoy the hell out of it.

Does every guy with dreadlocks always have a machete on them?
One of the best and most exciting action movies we've seen in many moons, The Raid: Redemption satisfies on just about every level that a movie like this possibly can. It's definitely more focused on the visuals than it is deep character development or narrative, but that's not to say it lacks in those areas at all. This is about a perfect as an action flick gets these days, and it really is one that you owe it to yourself to go and see.

Since there are no women in The Raid at all, here are a few pics of some random hot Indonesian actresses... because you deserve to see them.

6 comments :

  1. Speaking of remakes, The Raid is going to get one. Gareth won't be directing the Hollywood remake, but he'll become their executive producer (whatever his involvement there), and the "MadDog" and the "Hero" will be their fight choreographers too. We shall see.

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  2. Are you sure there's no woman in The Raid? How about Fikha Effendi who plays Rama's pregnant wife?

    BTW, for The Raid's sequel, Gareth Evans is considering to have a femme fatale. These two could be candidates :
    Hannah AlRasyid : http://www.litvchannel.com/_assets/images/thelink/host/photos/hannah_pic3.jpg

    Prisia Nasution, winner of last year Citra (Indonesia's equivalent to Oscar) as best actress :
    http://its04.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/22663_230745034932_809369932_2925321_4792204_n.jpg

    Don't be fooled by their looks. Just like Iko Uwais, they used to be silat athletes.

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  3. This looks like it would probably be my favorite movie of the year...if I could actually go see it, that is.

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  4. No women? No watchin'.

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  5. Watch it, Purgatori! It's worth it!

    It's in limited release in the U.S. Jordan, it could be somewhere near you...

    Yeah Nirmala, the wife was there for a few seconds, but we left her be because it almost felt like she was an extra in a way. Plus, it gave us an excuse to search "hot Indonesian actress" on Google.

    I hope they do have a femme fatale in part 2. We'd be happy to see either of those two ladies doing some Pencak Silat.

    And for the record, Iko Uwais was bad-ass in The Raid. We can't believe he's only been in 2 movies so far in his career. We need to see Merantau.

    Yeah Melissa, we heard about that. If Mad Dog and Iko are involved, with Gareth producing, then maybe it has a chance of not sucking... but honestly I don't see how the original can be match, or even come close to being matched.

    I get that audiences here tend to balk at subtitles, and that Hollywood wants to make money off their own version of things, but "Asian" movies are really hard to remake and do justice to. For every "The Departed" which was really good, we get a "Bangkok Dangerous" or a "My Sassy Girl" which just lost too much in translation to be as effective as their original counterparts.

    At least a remake may bring more attention to the original at least.

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  6. I watched this movie twice - once for work and another time with friends. As an action movie this film kicks so much ass...

    And the sound track is amazing too.

    best action movie i've seen in a long while. loved it.

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