Dir: Gareth Huw Evans
Stars: Iko Uwais, Ray Sahetapy, Yayan Ruhian
The opening of The Raid shows us a young man, Rama, praying and kissing his pregnant wife goodbye before setting off for work. Rama is one of a twenty-man SWAT police squad who are tasked with bringing down a master criminal living atop a tower block, which he has allowed to become overridden with the criminal and the destitute. From the point where the cops storm the building five minutes into the film, there is no further plot or character development – instead we are treated to an hour and a half of unrelenting action and extreme gore.
Although The Raid doesn’t pull any huge emotional punches, and is incredibly distant from its expendable characters, it is still a remarkably entertaining and action-packed film. The choreography of the fight scenes is beautifully done; with Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhain in particular displaying admirable mastery of the Indonesian martial art Pencak Silat. Every sound, shot, wound and kick is brilliantly photographed and edited, with the action only pausing intermittently during scenes that are built on great suspense and dread. It is these moments that illustrate the impressive achievement made by director Gareth Evans, due to the success in which tension is built despite the audience’s emotional detachment to the characters on screen.
If you are looking for a balls-to-the-wall action film packed with gore, bullets and martial arts, I would heavily recommend The Raid. Considering its unknown Indonesian cast, and shoestring $1m budget, it is a much more successfully made action film than any of the Expendables cast have managed in recent years.
7/10
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