DIRECTED BY: Gareth Evans

STARRING: Iko Uwais, Donny Alamsyah, Joe Taslim, Ray Sahetapy, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno, Tegar Satrya, Eka ‘Piranha’ Rahmadia, Verdi Solaiman, Ananda George, Yusuf Opilus, Iang Darmawan, M. Iman Aji, Zaenal Arifin and Hanggi Maisya

BUDGET: $1.1m

EARNED (Worldwide): $9.1m

AWARDS: None

SYNOPSIS

A S.W.A.T. team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.

In Jakarta, Indonesia, we follow a S.W.A.T team being led by Lieutenant Wahyu to infiltrate an apartment building that is a safe house to a powerful and cruel drug lord named Tama. They break in to capture Tama but soon their appearance is known and they must fight with limited ammunition against a block of armed and dangerous gangsters in order to get him.

I’ll admit in my first sitting, I felt slightly disappointed with The Raid: Redemption, due to the hype of it being brought up for months that it was ‘the best film ever’ according to some people I know, but thankfully on repeated viewings I’ve grown to appreciate the martial art spectacle of the film that provides the audience with a straight forward plot, S.W.A.T team go in to take in a drug lord but have to fight through various gangs to reach their goal. It’s not artsy but the choreography involved in the fight sequences are hit hitting, bone crunching and all practically done in a film that’s incredibly low budget by todays standards. There’s few moments of pause amid the chaos to develop a few of the characters, in particular that of Rama who will from this film and it’s sequel, become an iconic cinematic martial arts character and Andi who appears to be more layered than he appears to be as the film progresses. The film may not have the multi-layered story that some may look for or believe that the violence is too over-the-top but it works for me and leads to one of my favourite sequels ever made which gives you a more concentrated story…along with more hard hitting action.

FAVOURITE SCENE: Some may have their pick of Rama and Andi taking on Mad Dog in the final act, but I actually prefer Mad Dog fighting Jaka in the act before.

FAVOURITE QUOTE: ‘Go to work and have a fun.’ – Tama

DID YOU KNOW?: Yayan Ruhian, who played the Mad Dog character, had once trained Pencak Silat for Pasukan Pengamanan Presiden (the Indonesian Presidential Security Forces- equivalent to US Secret Service) in 1989 and for the Indonesian Military Police Corps in the early 1990s.