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The Raid: Redemption (Re)View

Posted by Vinnie Leduc on April 17, 2012

Foreign film The Raid: Redemption, one of our Most Anticipated Movies of 2012, is easily the best action movie this year so far and arguably the best martial arts one in years. Coming from Indonesia with very high intensity despite a very low budget, The Raid showcases the country’s native martial arts style, called pencat silat, in a furious flurry of machetes and machine guns. Heart-poundingly brutal and gripping, The Raid: Redemption would have been an epic video game.

That’s not to say it was as ridiculous or lighthearted as say, Lockout, because The Raid is definitely neither. Prior to watching it, I wasn’t familiar with pencat silat at all, but the only ridiculous thing to me was the tendency of bad guys to announce their incoming first attacks with primal screams and yelling. Besides giving the good guys chances to parry or block, why do they do that? I thought Asians were stealthy.

The basic plot is like an awesome video game. The Raid follows a tactical force of 20 policemen as they attempt to work their way up 30 floors of a druglord’s heavily guarded apartment building in the slums. Yes, there will be blood. The violent action-travaganza is sure to stir up comparisons to Thailand’s Ong Bank franchise (star Iko Uwais is probably headed to stardom similar to that of Tony Jaa), but I don’t think I’ve seen such a great action film with significant martial arts since the parkour-based French film District B13 (ignore the disappointing sequel).

On top of jaw-dropping action, The Raid: Redemption features a couple of memorable villains played by Yayan Ruhian and Ray Sahetapy and an often riveting score by Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park) and Joseph Trapanese. There’s no extra scene during or after the credits, but The Raid is the beginning of a planned trilogy, and there’s already talk of a Hollywood remake. No surprise there, but I can’t wait for the sequels. The Raid: Redemption gets 4 out of 5 stars or B+ or Great.

User Score:

Rating: 4.1/5 (11 votes cast)

The Raid: Redemption (2011): No Extras During or After the Credits

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http://redbandproject.com/ Yoda808

Yeah,

I will say that I think I hyped this movie up for myself because it only met (and did not exceed) my expectations. That isn’t a bad thing though as the fight scenes were pretty good and I couldn’t believe they kept getting bigger each time–though I had heard that was the case beforehand. Definitely a solid 4 stars.
Xen11

Good movie. The fighting gets redundant though. It just gets to the point where my brain sort of shuts down until the fighting is over because it seems like the same thing over and over. I know its not necessarily and I really appreciate the kind of work that goes into this, but I’d like to be engaged more through story, tension, and suspense. Not that there wasn’t any, it just seemed like overkill to the point of not mattering anymore.

I liked the social commentary on how you really can’t trust any side because there is no good side, all sides are corrupt, but its the individual (you) that must do what you feel is right. Brother against brother, opposing sides that respect the other and agree to disagree, going separate ways. Maybe everyone can learn something from that. We’re all set in our ways and nobody can change the other.
http://twitter.com/nhleduc ledunc

yeah i looked into the fighting too, martial arts style pencat silat, would be down to learn it looked awesome lol!
http://twitter.com/nhleduc ledunc

1 of the immediate memorable fighting moves: head slam to the wall, head slam to the wall a few inches lower, ultimate head slam to the wall inches below that

wow! creative action sequences to say the least
http://MediaStinger.com/ Paul Curtin

Great movie, agree, solid 4 because like Xen said, the fighting is awesome, but it’s almost too long in some parts, especially during the 2 vs. 1 fight. For real, how many hits can you take and keep going at full speed? A little too much there, but still a great fight scene. I’d also be pissed if I was the little dude. He gave them the odds and they still had to stab him in the back to beat him haha
- http://MediaStinger.com/ Paul Curtin
  
  Oh yeah, and great score by Shinoda, glad he’s scoring movies like Reznor now.