The Raid: Redemption is a 2011action-thriller about a S.W.A.T. trapped in an apartment complex filled with killers and thugs, and is this Week’s Hot Pick Flick.
The Raid follows Rama (Iko Uwais), a rookie member of a top notch special forces team who is asked to hang back and keep a lookout while the rest of his team completes their mission to enter a decrepit thirty story building to take out the mob boss who runs it on the top floor. This building is filled with the most deplorable assortment of people you can imagine. There are murderers, drug dealers, gangsters, thieves, and every other type of bad guy you can think of. When someone sees the special forces team on their way inside the building the mob boss, Tama (Ray Sahetapy), tells all these baddies that they will get immunity for killing the cops. This is when all hell breaks loose. When the leader of their team becomes unable to lead, Rama steps in to lead the team and complete their mission. What follows are some of the most intense fight sequences ever put to film.
Take every action movie you’ve ever watched, lump it into one awesome movie and then multiply it by ten. That’s The Raid. I didn’t know that human beings were capable of being this fast. It’s truly incredible to watch and Iko Uwais is a master of the martial arts form used in this film called Pencak Silat. The literal translation for this is “to fight artfully” and that couldn’t be closer to the truth. These fight scenes are like watching art in motion. There is so much purpose and intensity behind the movements.
Director, Gareth Evans, has really made a name for himself with this one and has proven that there is still a lot of possibility in terms of innovation with any genre, even one like the action genre, in which you think you’ve seen everything before. This movie takes it to a whole new level and sets the stakes pretty high for new action movies coming out.
All I keep raving about is the action sequences, but the best part about this movie… actually no, I mean the second best part . . . the best part really is the action, is that it still has a great plot. I find that a lot of movies in this genre either have incredible action sequences or a decent plot, not both. Rama is a great character. You see him with his pregnant wife at the beginning and you really want him to succeed. You see the difficultly with which he makes each decision and his moral struggle between doing what’s right and his strong desire to live. There’s more going on here than just action and that’s refreshing.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I really liked this movie. It’s an amazing visual feast of non stop, fist pumping, adrenaline fueled action. It also has a decent plot and likable characters (the good guys. The bad guys are really unlikeable). You need to watch it this weekend and then again soon afterwards because your mind will turn off from the pure awesome the first time you watch it.