The Raid

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Serbuan Maut (The Raid: Redemption)

September 28th 2012 05:31

Jakarta, Indonesia. A SWAT team arrives at a rundown apartment block, fifteen stories high. Inside is a notorious drug lord. He operates the building as a safe-house for dangerous killers and drug dealers. The police have silently declared the building as a no-go zone, but one lieutenant has had enough. He has employed a gung-ho sergeant and crack team to take the kingpin down. At all costs, with extreme prejudice. But when backup is called for it soon becomes apparent this team is on its own, trapped inside an urban hell, from the frying pan into the fire. Oh, and there will be blood.

The Raid (as its known internationally) has become one of the must lauded action flicks of recent years. Shot on a very modest budget (the equivalent of just over $US1m) and featuring some of the most outrageous fight choreography since … well, since forever, the movie kicks serious butt. So over-the-top is the combat action its frequently hard to take seriously. And this movie is by no means a comedy. It’s not even light-hearted. The Raid snarls like a rabid dog.

Watching the movie you’d be hard pressed to guess the director is a Welsh dude. Gareth Evans has already got one extreme Asian action flick under his belt, Merantau, which stars the same lead actor as The Raid. He’s already shooting his third Indonesian action-thriller, Berandel due for release next year. Not only did Evans write and direct The Raid, but he also edited the feature and was the fight choreographer. This is an awesome feat as The Raid is very much a tour-de-force in those two departments. Some great stunt work too.

However, on the other side of the combat coin lies plausibility, and The Raid throws most of that out the window. It becomes a fight fantasy. The goodies and the baddies hammer each other viciously and savagely and in one extended scene near the end of the movie three men kick and punch the living daylights out of each other yet appear barely bruised or cut. In fact one guy sports a cut he got much earlier in the movie in a superbly tense sense involving a hollow wall and a machete and the man’s cheek.

The Raid is pure escapism. It’s the ultimate combat carnival ride. But one should take it with a grain of salt. It gets very repetitious, and one is pummeled so vigorously by the fighting and gunfire that numbness and saturation soon threatens the psyche. The movie almost wears out its welcome. Almost.

The performances are solid, the art direction good, the score is a pulsating electronic surge of chattering percussion and atmospheric electro stabs and aggressive hip-hop beats. If you like modern mixed martial arts and high firepower then The Raid will most certainly tickle your fancy. Personally I prefer deeper characterisation and I prefer my ultra-violence to actually have the proper consequences to the body.

The Raid Blu-ray is courtesy of MAdman Entertainment, many thanks!

Here’s the the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

1 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by JohnDoe

September 29th 2012 19:04

Film & TV on DVD

Turning ass kicking into human spectacle, easily the best face to face combat since 'Ong Bak".

Simple and to the point, perfectly describes the story and the economical martial art in the film.

According to imdb it's meant to be the first part in a trilogy.

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