The Raid

Hear the one about the Indonesian action film from a year ago that was directed by a Welshman? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. However, following its appearance at a number of film festivals towards the end of 2011, the positive reaction generated has now meant a worldwide release for Gareth Evans’ The Raid. This is one of those films that gets snapped up by studios based on viewing the first 20 minutes only. The reason for that in this case? Well it’s stylishly directed, bone crunchingly violent and completely bonkers. Telling the story of rookie policeman Rama (Iko Uwais) and a SWAT team who raid a criminal ridden derelict high rise in Jakarta in order to take down a crime lord, the first half of the film flies by in a blur of guns, knives, fists and feet. Once the dust settles though things become a bit more mundane with a plot device involving Rama’s bad guy bro (has there even been an Asian martial arts released where this isn’t the case?) and the fighting focusing on the traditional Indonesian martial art of Pencak silat. This is a shame as the first 45 minutes threatens to be one of the films of the year, especially when the fridge’s and axes start flying about as well. This was originally planned to be a prison gang movie (a trailer was even shot) before fiscal problem meant the script was completely re-written which formed the basis for this film. This could partially explain why the mayhem subsides in the latter half of the film, but for fans of broken bones and claret on the walls, don’t worry as that is pretty consistent throughout the running time. Uwais isn’t a great actor, but he can certainly kick the required arse. Ironically it’s the films blistering start and Evans’ no nonsense direction that also proves to be one of the films handicaps. There’s so much mayhem going on that you can’t really invest much emotion in too many of the protagonists (especially the SWAT team with their similar get up from person to person) and things fly by so quickly that even when you have learnt one of the characters names there’s a good chance they’ll be knife or bullet fodder seconds later. The film also suffers from the old choreographed look that many martial arts suffer from, highlighted towards the end of the film where a dust up between three of the main characters just goes on forever and actually elicits boredom rather than sweaty palms. However, with a US remake in the works you better check this out before there’s a version out there staring Statham, Li, Tatum et al…..

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Enjoyably outrageous mayhem. Shame it runs out of steam towards the end. Rating: 7/10.