I had just recently watched this film and I just had to write about it. I never really hide my love for things, but I do have to admit that action films are considered to be one of my guiltiest pleasures.
Action films tend to have a rather bad rep amongst snooty film enthusiasts, mostly because of the immense lack of plot, scenes with absolute no use or story except to show intricate fight sequences, and actors chosen only for their martial arts skills rather than their acting experience.
With that description, Indonesian's own crown jewel "The Raid: Redemption" is exactly that, but I'm here to tell you why it is a good thing and why you have to watch it anyway.
Who made this? Gareth Evans, a Welsh director who was so fascinated with Indonesian martial arts he is now based in the country and has created this golden masterpiece with his muse, Iko Uwais.
Who's in it? Iko Uwais, who is more like the Christoph Waltz to Evan's Quentin Tarantino. Yayan Ruhian, who played Mad Dog in the film is also a star player.
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What is it about? Okay so the beauty of a perfect action film is that it doesn't have much of a twisting plotline. The plot if simple, a large group of cops try to catch the big chief of all bad guys who stays on the top of that building, and they have to go through all of the floors to reach him.
Kind of like a great video game.
Why should we watch it? The plotline alone had already made me feel intrigued, but if you can appreciate cinema in all forms "The Raid: Redemption" captures so many different brutal ways to die or kill that it is absolutely fantastic. It is also beautifully done in terms of cinematography and choreography, and you can bask in the vision that Evan's has created along with the bloody violent beautiful mess.
This is an absolute perfect film if you're a great fan of a great action film with a simple plot and massive minutes of just fighting and blood and weapons and combat, however, I personally also preferred more of the story and the dialogue and they didn't have enough of it. But that's the only thing I can say that was a slight downside to it.
I'm excited for the sequel. The plot of "The Raid 2: Berandal" is unknown, according to IMDB, however it takes place 2 hours after the first film.
The trailer, which also gained a wide amount of attention online, was good enough to get me so intrigued I had to watch the first film in the first place.
