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 The Raid is an amazing film. I'm not sure why they added the word "Redemption" to the title though. Perhaps they felt the title just wasn't generic enough. Actually they apparently changed it due to copyright reasons and a desire o make this into a trilogy. I saw this film at Sundance this year and let me assure you that is insane. If you have any interest in movies where people beat the ever living crap out of other people, this is the movie for you. Here, watch this trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWlmhMSnVdM&hd=1 Know that this just scratched the surface. Know that this trailer is giving you the most basic idea of what you're in for. Here's what I wrote in my Sundance thread with a few things fleshed out: To put it simply, this might be the best martial arts film I’ve ever seen. There is not a moment of fighting that isn’t just flat out insane in its artistry and intensity. This film is like a revelation. This is the type of film that makes you question how much you actually liked other films. This is the type of film that can ruin the genre because nothing else will be able to live up to it. The plot isn’t important. There is a building owned by crime boss and a swat team is raiding it. Things go really badly. There’s not much more to it then that. Sure there's a plot twist or two along the way but you won't care and the movie barely does. This film knows what it is. It gives us enough plot to get from action scene to action scene. Characters are established enough so we know who are the good guys and who are the bad guys and we are given enough so we are rooting for the good guys over the bad guys, but that's about it. To its credit it doesn’t really feel as shallow as I'm making it out to be. We’re never in need for more plot and the action scenes don’t seem to be a montage of fighting but rather something that is flowing naturally. The action itself is incredible. The dancey nature of most of the genre is replaced by pure violence. Every movement in this film is designed to kill or cripple. If a move managed to do neither it is because it was blocked and then countered with a move of equal ferocity. This is one of the most brutal films I’ve ever seen. The deaths are quick and deliberate. Sometimes they're creative, while sometimes it’s just a guy getting beaten so severely that you doubt they’ll ever move again. The film also features a variety of styles with a sort of devolution of weaponry as the film progresses. We start out with guns. When the bullets run out it changes to Billy clubs, knives and machetes. When those get left behind it’s down to fists. All these modes of combat bring something new and fresh to the film. It feels like we get every bit hey can out of ever style and then move on. Most films of this genre seem to be filler until the fights. Sometimes the filler can be good but it’s still filler. Here it’s pretty much just endless fighting. Once in a while it’ll pause for plot but it really only serves to enhance the action. There’s one part in particular that kind of slowed the film down but later I realized it was necessary to set up another fight. While you’d think you’d get tired of this endless action, you don’t. It’s just all so spectacular and so varied that you just want more. The last fight in particular might be one of the best fights I’ve ever seen on film. This isn’t a deep of complicated movie. This is the top tier of a genre. If you want to see people fighting each other, it simply does not get any better than this. Here's a list of theaters in which it will be playing: http://www.sonyclassics.com/theraid/dates.html Somebody fucked around with this message at Mar 23, 2012 around 22:48 |
| # ? Mar 23, 2012 05:16 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 15:56 |
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Watched the trailer. Wow. This looks incredible and I'm really pumped to see this. Honestly though, this: axleblaze posted:Most films of this genre seem to be filler until the fights. Sometimes the filler can be good but it’s still filler. Here it’s pretty much just endless fighting.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 07:40 |
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I saw this tonight in NYC. The director was there and did a pretty good Q&A afterwards. The movie was loving incredible; easily one of the best martial arts movies I've ever seen. It's up there with Ong Bak, The protector, and Donnie Yen's best stuff. Also in the Q&A he detailed how this is actually the first movie in a trilogy, and he even talked about some of the crazy rear end stunts they are trying to pull off in the next one.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 07:43 |
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This is going to be shown on the Night Visions festival here in Finland on April. Definitely going to see it. The trailer alone had me hooked. The setup of the movie is genius in its simplicity. It has that raw back to basics feel you'd see in older John Carpenter movies for example.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 07:44 |
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This looks loving brutal and I can't wait to see it. Plus it will give me an opportunity to see the new (well, not really new) Sundance Cinema that opened up in place of a theater that closed down.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 15:00 |
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This movie looks great, and the soundtrack is shaping up to be something awesome. I'll be there the day it's released here in the UK!
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 16:14 |
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I've been dying to see this ever since I read your review in your Sundance thread. I want to see it so badly, but alas, no show times in Canada according to the link. e: I noticed CG blood in one shot in the trailer. Is a lot of the blood in the movie CG, and if there is, is it noticeable/distracting? Gringo Heisenberg fucked around with this message at Mar 23, 2012 around 18:06 |
| # ? Mar 23, 2012 18:01 |
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Gringo Heisenberg posted:I've been dying to see this ever since I read your review in your Sundance thread. I want to see it so badly, but alas, no show times in Canada according to the link. I never really noticed any CG blood but I'm kind of good at not really being distracted by special effect. I believe a majority of stuff was done practically though.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 18:16 |
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I'm not sure if this is expanding or not, but I'm pretty disappointed it's not playing anywhere within 50 miles of Houston.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 18:36 |
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Pet Rock Band posted:I'm not sure if this is expanding or not, but I'm pretty disappointed it's not playing anywhere within 50 miles of Houston. It doesn't open in Texas until April 13th. The opening schedule is in the OP.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 18:41 |
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Within 50 miles? It looks like the closest it's going to be playing to where I am is like 500 miles  I might be crazy, but not quite crazy enough to drive that far for a movie, sadly.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 19:46 |
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Literally just finished watching this, and I almost want to buy tickets to the next showing. Axeblaze is not over selling this at all, I have never seen a martial arts movie quite like this.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 21:15 |
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I just got back from seeing it in Toronto and that was by far the best action movie I've ever seen. I'm not very well versed in martial arts movies, but after seeing this I definitely want to see more. The fights were incredible and the use of knives was great, if not a bit nasty at times. Great movie to see with a big crowd. The crowd I was in applauded several times throughout the movie. Overall, the whole movie was a massive rush and I actually liked the downtime because it gave you time to recover for the next brutal fight scene.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 21:21 |
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MagicCube posted:I just got back from seeing it in Toronto and that was by far the best action movie I've ever seen. I'm not very well versed in martial arts movies, but after seeing this I definitely want to see more. The fights were incredible and the use of knives was great, if not a bit nasty at times. Great movie to see with a big crowd. The crowd I was in applauded several times throughout the movie. Overall, the whole movie was a massive rush and I actually liked the downtime because it gave you time to recover for the next brutal fight scene. Assuming you saw it at the Scotiabank theater, how was the ticket availability? Should I buy the tickets online ahead of time or can I just show up 30 minutes beforehand and expect to get decent seats?
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 21:32 |
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Mr.48 posted:Assuming you saw it at the Scotiabank theater, how was the ticket availability? Should I buy the tickets online ahead of time or can I just show up 30 minutes beforehand and expect to get decent seats? I believe it's only showing at Scotiabank theater and I bought my tickets there, but I also got there over an hour and a half early after my class ended. But for the first showing at 2 pm, it was actually about 3/4 full. So it would probably be best to buy tickets online just to be safe.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 21:38 |
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Ahh, for fucks sake. I have been hyping my friends up on this movie for months! Now I find out it isn't even playing near me until April.  Still really excited though. Hurry up April!
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 21:39 |
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Boxing Snatcher posted:Ahh, for fucks sake. I have been hyping my friends up on this movie for months! Now I find out it isn't even playing near me until April. April is like a week from now. This is actually going to be showing in Albuquerque for some reason so I''m down.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 22:10 |
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A friend of mine at work just told me about this movie and it looks AMAZING. Going to try and catch it this weekend for sure.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 22:20 |
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Ok, after a phone call to the box office, they confirmed that it will be showing on April 20th in Houston. There might be enough time to swing in to see it, and then catch The Melvins/Unsane show later that evening at Warehouse Live! Parachute fucked around with this message at Mar 23, 2012 around 22:33 |
| # ? Mar 23, 2012 22:24 |
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Just got back from seeing this. Easily one of the best action films I've ever seen. I didn't think they'd top the first hallway beatdown, but then they did. And then they topped that. And then they topped it again. I hope it opens closer to me because I will gladly see this again.
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| # ? Mar 23, 2012 23:33 |
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This isn't coming anywhere near me. gently caress you, awesome movies. gently caress you.
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 01:32 |
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I just found out this movie is playing here in Portland, OR on the 30th.  And I'm going to be out of town for a funeral on the 28th. 
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 01:33 |
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Dickeye posted:This isn't coming anywhere near me. gently caress you, awesome movies. gently caress you. Every god drat time.
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 01:41 |
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Megasabin posted:I saw this tonight in NYC. The director was there and did a pretty good Q&A afterwards. The movie was loving incredible; easily one of the best martial arts movies I've ever seen. It's up there with Ong Bak, The protector, and Donnie Yen's best stuff. And similar to those movies it has a really threadbare plot/characters but the awesome choreography and set pieces really make up for it.
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 02:12 |
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Just saw it...pure distilled brutal martial arts madness. The entire audience were cheering togelther at some parts, it was quite an experience. Even if you are not a huge action fan, see it anyway. Feels like a once in a lifetime type of movie.
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 02:14 |
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Movie owned beyond my wildest dreams, most brutal martial arts movie ever.
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 03:14 |
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Wow, this is currently playing in mainstream theatres in Australia. Didn't expect that given you guys are having trouble getting to it in the US at the moment. I think I'll go see it today.
Tgent fucked around with this message at Mar 24, 2012 around 03:30 |
| # ? Mar 24, 2012 03:27 |
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Is it safe to say this movie is like the feature-film version of Jet Li's axe kick from The Expendables?
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 04:17 |
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Lobok posted:Is it safe to say this movie is like the feature-film version of Jet Li's axe kick from The Expendables? Yes imagine the craziness of the continuous shot charge up the staircase beat-down scene from The Proctor turned into a whole movie.
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 05:05 |
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Oh cool, I was wondering if I missed this being released or not. Sounds good 
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 06:15 |
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This is coming to Little Rock in April? Holy poo poo I am there.
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 08:24 |
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Just got back from seeing this in a relatively packed theatre in Jakarta. A few quick things that I noticed after watching the movie for the first time. - The dialogue. To an Indonesian ear, the way the dialogue is delivered and the vocabulary used made it seemed like the script was written in English first then translated back to Indonesia. A few phrases sounded a bit odd to my ear but when I translated it in my mind to English, it makes more sense. Did you guys watched this subtitled or dubbed? - The cast. This is quite diverse cast of people featured in the movie. For example, Iko Uwais is native Jakartan, the guy playing the lieutenant is European descent, and the gang of machete-wielder were Ambonese. By the way, the leader of the machete gang, the one wearing the gold chain drew the hugest laughter from the audience because of his comical accent. - The story. I don't know about you guys but I wasn't able to follow the story at all the first time, I might need to watch it the second time just to get a better sense of what's going on. Overall, I quite like it, no other Indonesian action film come close to this movie in terms of delivering sheer visceral thrill
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 12:27 |
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davidHalestorm posted:- The dialogue. To an Indonesian ear, the way the dialogue is delivered and the vocabulary used made it seemed like the script was written in English first then translated back to Indonesia. A few phrases sounded a bit odd to my ear but when I translated it in my mind to English, it makes more sense. Did you guys watched this subtitled or dubbed? The director is not Indonesian (he's Welsh) and barely speaks a word of the language. He speaks a little bit but needed to rely heavily on translators, so it is likely that this was probably written in English first and then translated. The version I saw was subbed.
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| # ? Mar 24, 2012 13:20 |
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This movie was just insanely badass. The audience I saw it with were losing their poo poo throughout the entire flick, which was great. Every scene just escalates more and more. Mad Dog has got to go down as one of the most hardcore loving movie villains of all time. "Pulling a trigger, there's no satisfaction in that. It's like ordering takeout." And that final fight.  But yeah, go see this movie. Its insane and definitely one of the top action movies I've ever seen.
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| # ? Mar 25, 2012 05:39 |
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axleblaze posted:The director is not Indonesian (he's Welsh) and barely speaks a word of the language. He speaks a little bit but needed to rely heavily on translators, so it is likely that this was probably written in English first and then translated. The version I saw was subbed. Yeah, I am aware that the director is not Indonesian. The translators should probably do a better job making the dialogue sound more natural. I'll give you an example , when someone said to Rama (Iko Uwais' character), "you should change your clothes" and he replied, 'No, thanks. This one fits me'. In English, that phrase carried a double-meaning. The clothes fits his body but it also fits him as a policeman, someone who believe in justice. That meaning doesn't carried over to Indonesian. In any case, I am only nitpicking, the last thing this movie needs is more "tell", it's got more than enough "show" to compensate.
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| # ? Mar 25, 2012 10:40 |
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Gonna echo the sentiment. WATCH THIS MOVIE. There were so many "oooooh" moments; it's brutal as hell.
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| # ? Mar 26, 2012 04:11 |
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Saw this movie last night and it was absolutley amazing. Some of the coolest fight scenes I've ever seen in a movie. They managed to pull off crazy unrealistic moves without making them seem completely unrealistic which is something you don't often see in this genre. Near the end of the movie I was disappointed that it was coming to an end. Sad that I wouldn't get to see anyone else take a knee to the skull. quote:The story. I don't know about you guys but I wasn't able to follow the story at all the first time, I might need to watch it the second time just to get a better sense of what's going on. The story wasn't that complex (or important)spoiled just in case The SWAT team isn't actually ordered to attack the complex by the Police but were tricked into attacking the complex by the white haired SWAT leader who is a corrupt cop. Both White Hair and the leader of the Complex are under the pay of this mystery main crimelord. It turns out that White Hair was tricked into trying to kill the main villain which was actually a set up to have White Hair killed. It is dumb because surely it would just be easier to kill him some other way but I don't care. SolidRed fucked around with this message at Mar 26, 2012 around 06:24 |
| # ? Mar 26, 2012 06:11 |
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SolidRed posted:The story wasn't that complex (or important)spoiled just in case The SWAT team isn't actually ordered to attack the complex by the Police but were tricked into attacking the complex by the white haired SWAT leader who is a corrupt cop. Both White Hair and the leader of the Complex are under the pay of this mystery main crimelord. It turns out that White Hair was tricked into trying to kill the main villain which was actually a set up to have White Hair killed. It is dumb because surely it would just be easier to kill him some other way but I don't care. Close, the "mystery main crimelord" isn't one person, but the majority of corrupt cops in leadership. The boss's exposition regarding that at the end is in keeping with the major theme of the movie, that there's little difference between corrupt/misguided cops and hardened criminals. That's why the basic humanity that Iko Uwais's character shows, and is shown in return, lets him stay good and triumph in the end.
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| # ? Mar 26, 2012 08:09 |
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axle, you may want to embed the theatrical trailer instead. It's this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkULMOFpuCo The red band one spoils some of the action, even though it's really bits and pieces of it. Still I think it'd be better if people went in with a blank slate. Saw it and thought it was refreshing. The energy level is definitely several notches higher than anything I've seen lately, with little CGI use as well. The blood was a mix of CG and liquid, and the lighting made it harder to differentiate. It's a bit Bourne-ish in terms of the melee action, but you can track the hits and camera work is much better. There were also a ton of little references to other martial arts or Asian movies. For example, the character of Mad Dog was definitely homage to the same character in Hard Boiled. That came out in 1992 and oh great now I feel old. windsor fucked around with this message at Mar 26, 2012 around 09:32 |
| # ? Mar 26, 2012 08:30 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 15:56 |
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Saw this tonight and quite enjoyed it, though I'm kind of surprised at the acclaim it's getting as a superlative martial arts film - it's very very good in that respect, furious and brutal, but even from my cursory experience of martial arts films I feel I've seen more visceral work in Tony Jaa's The Protector and more artistic, satisfying work in Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China films. Evans' direction is a little messy, too, but there's some really sensationally-staged setpieces, like the fight in the garish blue-and-green apartment, the cocaine factory brawl and the tag-team Mad Dog fight. I don't know if I'm the only one to pick this up, but I also think it's pretty interesting how overtly it deals with class disparity and the idea of the 'race to the bottom'. The crime lord, who is also the landlord, tells his tenants to hunt down the cops (essentially the public service) and if they kill any of them, he'll give them their own room rent-free for life? The lieutenant and the crime lord are pitted against each other by shady rich corrupt cops in order to prevent the lieutenant from getting a promotion to their ranks? It's all about people on the lower rungs of society (the lower levels - consider the high-rise as a metaphor for the class system, with most of the fighting done on the first seven floors and the crime lord not even on the top floor) being pitted against each other by those in higher classes in order to distract from the injustices they inflict on those lower-class people.
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| # ? Mar 26, 2012 10:36 |
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