Movie reviewer: The Raid: Redemption

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Trailers & Video Coming to Theaters In Theaters New on DVD Trailers by Genre Trailers by Decade In Theaters The Raid: Redemption Reviewed by Sean O'Connell on Mar 22 2012

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Do you know the "money shot" scene that usually occurs in Act Three of every major action film? The pieces have been strategically placed around the director's "board," and the carefully constructed story culminates in an elongated, expertly choreographed, eye-popping sequence of thrilling events?

The Raid: Redemption is that one scene, stretched to a ridiculously relentless 101 minutes.

Writer/director Gareth Evans wastes no time introducing his razor-thin plot -- a well-armed Jakarta S.W.A.T. team, which infiltrates the solidified fortress of an Indonesian crime lord, must fight its way to safety when their plan backfires -- then sits back and watches the action unfold with hellish fury. If you are looking for more than that, you won't find it in The Raid. But for those bemoaning the watered-down state of action thrillers in the year 2012, The Raid is a shock-to-the-heart cure for your cinematic doldrums.

Evans's secret weapon continues to be Iko Uwais, a lithe Indonesian martial artist the Welsh-born director discovered while filming a documentary on the fighting style known as Silat. The unlikely pair collaborated on Evans's 2009 epic drama Merantau, and extended their partnership with The Raid. Maybe they realize how combustible their chemistry can be on screen. Or maybe Evans has yet to come up with an impossibly physical stunt that Uwais can't pull off, and he won't rest until he's discovered his gifted male lead's breaking point. Either way, we win.

Uwais stands out in The Raid by playing Rama, a rookie officer with a pregnant wife at home who takes matters into his own hands once he realizes his immediate supervisors can't be trusted. And like a video-game hero blessed with unlimited lives, Uwais kicks, punches, spins, flips, fights, shoots, dives, and slices his way through waves and waves of lethal opponents as we hold our breath and pray that the roller coaster comes to a stop before we collapse onto the floor in a heap of exhaustion.

Evans's film is a pressure cooker of action movie endurance, a bone-crushing exercise in one man's lack of physical limitations. Bodies shouldn't do the things Uwais and his cohorts manage in Evans' battle royale. If you want a laugh to break some of the tension, stay for the duration of the end credits, where you'll find out who played Drug's Lab Guard #21 (Dedy Supriadi), Carrying Bowo Fighter #14 (Novi Rahmat Hidayat), Hole Drop Attacker #7 (Eko Kunianto) and Riot Van Shooter #3 (Dovan).

To me, these were faceless drones waiting to be dispensed by Rama, who barely walks with a limp by picture's end. I'm a bigger fan of vulnerable action heroes, guys like John McClane (Bruce Willis) in the original Die Hard, who's legitimately in danger of faltering before his particular mission ends. Rama's more of a well-oiled killing machine, and his victory's rarely in doubt. You're just left to guess how many corpses he'll leave in his wake before the day is done, and what creative way he will find to remove the obstacle(s) standing in his path. There's a reason this escalating thriller plays so well with Midnight crowds at genre film festivals. It's a button-pushing ride, and one action junkies will want to cue up again and again.

Here's the good news: Evans already has started rolling the ball on a Raid sequel (tentatively titled Berendal), and an American remake is in production at Screen Gems. So while it's marginally disappointing to see our hero ride off into the sunset as The Raid concludes, it's comforting to know he lives to fight another day, and that day's coming sooner rather than later.