The Raid is a particularly brutal martial arts film about a SWAT team attempting to arrest a sadistic criminal bunkered at the top of a 15-stories apartment building filled with his machete-wielding thugs.
Don’t let the simplistic story fool you, The Raid is not about the complexity of its script or the caliber of its thespians.
The Raid is about punching your face.
Rarely has a martial arts film been so brutal in its combat sequences, and this sentiment is even more potent when one realizes how little CGI is used in The Raid.
The movie reminded me of older MA films from the 80’s, when stuntmen died because the combat was real, or so I’ve heard.
The Raid is filled with punches and kicks and machete strikes that make you think “how’d they do that without hurting this guy?” In one fight, Rama (the protagonist) twists the arm of an opponent and the skin on the arm twist and the bone visibly breaks, without any apparent editing cut.
Also, a first for this kind of film, enemies do not attack the heroes one at a time, but in groups of 4 or 5, feeding the action very effectively.
The fights are fast, but they are also well lit and shot, so the viewer can see every single move and hit in glorious Hi-Def!
The sound design is spectacular and so is the music. Acting-wise one would think it horrible, but it’s actually pretty good. The laughs are induced by the surprise from extreme ways in which the enemies are dispatched, not for the appropriately dramatic acting performances.
With The Raid, you go in, you get punched in the face, you come out.
Simple yet effective.
9.5/10
P.S. Not a date movie.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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