One of the most successful movies I've ever seen. WOW!!
THE RAID: REDEMPTION is one of the most successful movies I've seen in YEARS. It's not the greatest movie, by a long-shot...but the gap between its ambition (which is pretty high) and its actual accomplishment is almost non-existent. I've long believed that movies need to be judge, in part, on how well they accomplish what they attempt, and not just how "good" they are by some high-brow, artsy standard. Thus, a low-brow comedy like KNOCKED UP can get 5 stars from me because while it isn't great art, it meets or exceeds all its own goals. And by the same token, a gorgeous, ambitious, "serious" film like, oh, let's say ANNA KARININA only gets 3 or 4 stars, because its reach so far exceeds its grasp. THE RAID: REDEMPTION is darn near perfect. It wants to be a nearly non-stop, adrenalin-fueled, ultra-violent, martial-arts heavy action movie. It tries to strike a balance between incredible tension and the visceral release of that pent-up tension. It wants to shock and awe. And it does. Set in Indonesia, we meet a group of heavily armed and armored cops who are planning a raid on a very tall apartment building. At the top of this building sits the city's most vicious crime lord, along with his two cruelly effective henchmen. Beneath them, for floor after floor, is a seemingly endless string of bad guys, the scum and villains of the town. The cops must fight their way from bottom to top...and once their presence is exposed the viciousness and intensity of the fight is nearly ceaseless. The movie, while not based on a videogame, is the best example of a videogame movie I've seen. Granted, that's a low bar...but THE RAID clears that bar so effortlessly. The action sequences, which start with gunplay and then devolve first to knife play and then hand-to-hand combat, are among the best I've seen. I've never been a huge fan of the MMA/martial-arts type of combat, where the hero and his foe kick, punch, block, flip, etc. But I've NEVER seen so many fights staged so brilliantly or executed with such brutal fervor. This is no exaggeration...during some of the action sequences, I found myself on the edge of my seat, talking to the screen (or yelling at it). I simply DO NOT do that, yet I couldn't help it. I was engrossed and engaged. Yes, there is a bit of a story. We are introduced, perfunctorily, to several characters and we do learn a few things about them. There is even a bit of a surprise relationship that is revealed late in the film. There are moments for dialogue and for catching a breath. I wouldn't say the dialogue is brilliant or the acting Oscar caliber...but it is a little better than one might expect. Iko Uwais plays Rama, our young hero...and he's a convincing screen presence (and a helluva fighter). This is the kind of movie that relies on archetypes to gives us a shorthand for understanding the characters. The heroic rookie, the guy with the smart-aleck remarks, the leader with a secret, the potentially corrupt higher leader, the insane bad guy, etc. etc. What THE RAID does, however, is take these stock characters and put them in nearly perfect motion for maximum impact. Gareth Evans wrote, directed, edited and co-choreographed the film. In my mind, his is one of the most singular accomplishments in recent film history. Again, his goals are not exactly lofty or ennobling. But I can barely conceive how he managed to succeed so well where so many others have tried and failed. This is a brutal film, and many viewers will not be able to finish watching it. Some will find it glorifies violence or is just deeply depressing in its depiction of insane violence. For me, it was a rush from start to finish. It was a punch to the gut, but it was somehow uplifting as well. It's simplicity of plot and tightness of purpose set it up to succeed beyond anything I could have expected. I had heard it was good, but was skeptical. "Surely that's just fanboys and genre nuts talking," I said to myself. But I was wrong. Evans and his talented team delivered one of the most thrilling movies I've seen. Wow! Read more