The Raid - Redemption

The Raid - Redemption is this year's action hit and it's as good as all the hype surrounding it. I found all this hype pretty surprising considering, this is an action film that takes place in Indonesia and everyone is Indonesian. But that might be the best part of it.

We follow "20 elite cops" who plan to capture a well-known crime lord. Only thing standing between them and the crime lord are about 20 floors filled with criminals, committed to kill every one of the cops. We mostly follow a newbie, Rama, who is stunningly good with hand-to-hand -combat and is about to be a father and also carries around a secret connecting him to the building.

As a woman, I would never thought I'd say this, but one of this film's strenghts is that it only has one woman in it, Rama's wife in the very beginning. The rest is all about action. Although Hollywood may have strong special effect teams and stunt coordinators, it also has big studios that demand romantic relationships to get the girlfriends to go to the movies also. This film doesn't bother to use its valuable screen time to host a romantic relationship, because it would have no relevance to the story.

Gareth Evans started his career making documentary about Silat, the fighting style seen in this film. That's when he met Iko Uwais, who plays Rama in The Raid. The duo is very dynamic, they have a strong sense of what works and what doesn't. They understand who is going to be watching this film and what they want to see. And let me tell you, it is mindblowing. I usually hate action films, but this one was surrounded with such hype, I couldn't miss it. And I'm glad I didn't, because The Raid- Redemption truly is the best action film I have ever seen. Sure, The Dark Knight is probably a bit better, but I can't count it as an action film, it's a superhero/action/comicbook/one-of-a-kind-Christopher-Nolan-film. So The Raid Redemption takes the cake, easily.

Unfortunately, this isn't perfect. It's very, VERY close, but I found it lagging a bit at some point and because you don't know the actors and they all have pretty difficult names and look very alike in their costumes, it's hard to recognize anyone. And although the fighting is very entertaining and nicely choreographed, at some point you really start wondering "Really? The guy has a freaking lamp stuck on the side of his neck and he just keeps going!" Sure, no action movie is realistic, but these guys could take down Batman, Superman and Spiderman all at the same time without getting out of breath.

I read somewhere that they were making a Hollywood remake and my heart sunk. How are they going to make it? How are they gonna make it work? I bet 100 euros they are gonna cast whoever is the best newcomer that year and Michelle Rodriguez as a tough elite cop who has a sexy, but secret affair with our protagonist. And the fighting? No way. The scenery? Never.