Movie Review: THE RAID

THE RAID
Indonesia 2012
Directed and Written by Gareth Evans
Starring Iko Uwais, Donny Alamsyah, Ray Sahetapy,Yayan Ruhian


SYNOPSIS:   Rama (Uwais), a rookie cop in Jakarta, is part of a team that goes on a "raid" (Hey!) of an apartment building run by the ruthless crime boss, Tama (Sahetapy).  Things don't go as smoothly as planned, and as the police officers end up fighting for their lives against the machete and gun wielding slum residents, they learn that no ones motivations, whether cop or criminal, is precisely what it seems.


THOUGHTS:  There's been a lot of hyperbole thrown the way of this film; "The best action movie since Die Hard!" proclaims the State Theater in Ann Arbor, where I went to see it.  I can't go quite to that extreme (What?  Is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon chopped liver?!), but I will say that it is one of the most mercilessly brutal films I've seen in some time.  As a showpiece for Pencak Silat, the martial art style native to Indonesia, the sustained violence reaches such apocalyptic intensity as to briefly skirt the edges of horror.

Besides the obvious martial arts influences, Wales-born director Gareth Evans shows a love of genre cinema circa late 70's and early 80's.  The vibe and pacing is a mixture of Walter Hill's THE WARRIORS, John Carpenter's ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, and the apartment raid sequence from the beginning of George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD.  The pulsing synth score, a collaboration between Mike Shinoda and Joseph Trapanese for the American release, further emphasizes this link to the past.


The story, what there is of it, is the usual twisty nonsense, easily ignored beneath the deafening roar of shattering bones and splintering wood.  If you end up feeling compelled by it, more power to you, but like the center-stage building it serves no better purpose than to provide a flimsy framework for the bloody ballet at hand.


The film, quite simply, kicks ass; there is no more accurate way to describe it.  If onscreen violence is your catharsis, you'll find few films more purging than this.


RATING:  7 (LOVE)