Rent The Raid: Redemption on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Gareth Evans
Directed by: Gareth Evans
Starring: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A S.W.A.T. team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.
Verdict
This takes what could be just an action scene and turns it into an action movie. The pacing is excellent, giving us breaks to catch our breath while also providing a variety of fights. The action is excellent and captured well. There's just enough story to make the narrative feel complete, but this movie is a pure unadulterated thrill ride and it delivers. The relentless fight from bottom to top is what makes this so much fun.
Watch It.
Review
It's been more than eight years since I last saw this, and my review was a bit short.
After a quick intro just to let us know Rama (Iko Uwais) is the main character, we watch a SWAT team breach this drug lord controlled building, subduing whoever they encounter. When things quickly go bad you wonder about this plan. This is a SWAT team infiltrating a multi-floor building full of bad guys. That seems untenable. At five floors up the team is pinned.
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| Iko Uwais plays Rama |
It's clear Rama is sharp and capable. When what's left of the team is cornered, Rama instinctively grabs an axe and starts chopping through the floor. This has moments of sheer adrenaline and rapid action, and then in another moment it slows down as we wait for an attack that we know is imminent.
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| Iko Uwais plays Rama |
This movie is a ride from the second scene. The movie uses hand held
cameras to make you feel like you're in the action, and that does a
great job of capturing the madness. When the numbers are reduced, we get to see Rama shine. The fights are brutal as he takes on one after another starting with a hand to hand corridor fight. The tempo is perfect, knowing the audience needs a break to set up the next scene.
Few action movies are so simple, to the point, and engrossing. The action scenes are great. While the John Wick movies raised the bar for action, this came out three years earlier. It's certainly a precursor. This movie takes what could be a fight scene and makes a movie of it. The stakes are certainly high, and as this got closer to the end I wondered what more this could provide. The fight between Rama and Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian) is something else. We've seen all these crazy fights and yet the movie manages to keep doing more.
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