Gareth Evans’ Indonesian martial arts flick The Raid has been on the film world’s proverbial radar for several months now. It’s been touted as a game-changing action movie and spoken of in the same breath of some absolute titans of the genre, but would it manage to live up to all the hype? The answer is an emphatic yes…but with a caveat. If you like your fight scenes to be vicious, visceral and unrelenting, then you can’t go far wrong here. It’s a gung-ho action movie that doesn’t let up for one moment and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. However, if you have an aversion to ultra-violence and are of a squeamish disposition, it’s really not going to be your cup of tea.
The plot is simple enough: an elite squad of Indonesian police are sent into a fortified apartment block which is run by a dangerous and deadly crime lord called Tama. The building has long been a no-go area for cops and the unlucky squad soon realise why. Once inside they are forced to punch, kick, stab and shoot anything that moves just to stay alive. Grossly out of their depth and with no back-up to call upon, their situation gets increasingly worse. Our main focus is on rookie cop and all-round badass: Rama – an expectant father who finds himself in one bone-crunching scrap after another as the rest of his team rapidly dwindle in number.
Throughout the film the fight scenes are exceptionally choreographed by Evans who demonstrated a deft skill at capturing every hard-hitting moment. Rama (Iko Uwais) and Tama’s head henchman ‘Mad Dog’ (Yayan Rushain) are both a frenetic blur as they pummel all before them into submission before meeting in a stunning face-off at the film’s climax. There are a couple of twists thrown in for good measure and the high-concept plot does allow for some character development along the way but let’s be under no illusions: this film mostly skips from one intense fight scene to the next.
Inevitably it’s already been lined up for an American remake, but it’s hard to see where this can be improved upon. The Raid is heartily recommended to all martial-arts and action movie fans and I’d go as far as to say you’re really unlikely to see any better fights scenes in 2012.
Rob has awarded The Raid four torches of truth
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