THE RAID: REDEMPTION will kick the crap out of you!

THE RAID: REDEMPTION just doesn't stop.  It kicks butt in so many ways.  Fight after fight the film never fails to impress.  There are tons of wonderful moments of tension like a horror movie but mixed with a lot of punching and getting shot in the face.  It has a very simple premise.  A bunch of police guys storm an apartment complex looking for a big time crime lord who runs the whole joint.  Unfortunately the whole raid is one big trap and most of the cops are gunned down leaving just a few to survive through the body covered hallways and rooms.

I think a lot of direct-to-video action movies need to take a hard look at THE RAID.  How much did THE RAID accomplish visually with it's budget?  Was it really that much more expensive to make this movie than the latest Segal embarrassment?  Keep things simple and develop the characters by the actions they take not how many boring flashbacks and boring fill-in-the-background-of-the-characters talk.  You get all you need to know by some simple visuals at the beginning with a hint of mystery.  As the film moves forward secrets are revealed and characters change or not change by the bloody events they take part in.  THE RAID does just about everything right.  This movie even has shaky-cam and it does that right.  You can tell what is going on and not be distracted by the camera veering off to shake at something off screen.  Best of all this movie has no car chases.

I really don't have much to say about this one (because I am a terrible writer and have no buisness expressing my opinion on a blog *cough*cough*) except go see it whenever possible.  THE RAID is one of those movies that has a lot of cool and extremely painful moments to watch.  There is so much kung-fu and flippidy-do-da's going on that you might experience sensory overload resulting in the delusion that you start feeling every punch, kick, and face smash happening in the movie.  It's that good.  There is a really long but cool as heck fight scene at the end between two good guys and a badass henchman who is apparently extremely allergic to florescent light bulbs being broken and shoved into his throat.  You will be amazed at the athleticism of these actors.  They very physical actors that are good at fighting, acting and not getting killed on set.  Hey, this movie even has a token white dude in it as well!  You just know he is going to be the bad guy.  The only negative gripe I have is the title.  Do we really need the word "REDEMPTION" tagged at the end?  Is that how we are going to "Americanize" it?  Can we expect the titles to the sequels to be THE RAID: RISES, THE RAID: RESURRECTION, or THE RAID: RETURN OF THE?  Its just silly if you ask me.  But you didn't so I will just shut up now.


Bastards.....


Jason