The Raid: Redemption (also called Raid 1) came out in 2011, and starred Iko Uwais (who was only 28 year old at the time), as SWAT officer Rama. Rama, as part of a 20 man police squad, takes part in an operation to take down crime lord Tama Riyadi, who is living on the top floor of a 15 story apartment block. The entire apartment block is corrupt to the core and Tama charges the corrupt tenants rent. The police squad try to pull off the operation as silently as possible and proceed to clean it up floor-by-floor, but get detected on the 6th floor. That is when the shit hits the fan!
The Indonesian martial arts action is pretty awesome and there is no kissing or loving to distract the audience from the plot. The team enters, gets the shit kicked out of them, a handful survive, one man fights tooth and nail with nut job after nut job, finally accomplishing the mission, bringing honor to his fallen comrades.
Rama is unarmed through the movie and uses the structure around him to help him fight opponents.
The thing about the Raid series is that unlike other action movies you can really see the hero taking a beating. Each fight makes a visible impact on the hero and you can tell that he is facing an increasingly tough time.
Also, you have to give credit to the fact that the hero does all of this to fight evil, and not for a hot bootylicious girlfriend that he expects to nail at the end of the movie. Also, the Raid series has no major explosions to remind you of Michael Bay, but I can promise you that it has unparalleled speed and intensity.
I won’t hold it against you if you don’t watch Raid 2, but I insist that you take out the time to watch Raid 1. The sheer magnitude and intensity of the fight scenes is so much more amazing when you place yourself in Rama’s shoes and realize that the entire building is filled with gun-wielding sword-swiping bad guys who won’t think twice before putting a bullet through your brain and sword through your spine.
Raid 2 continues from where Raid 1 ends, with Rama going into jail undercover in order to gain the trust of a crime lord’s young son to enter the gang. The entire operation was suppoed to end in a few months but ends up getting stretched across more than two years!
Rama beating up one of the major bad guys in Raid 2, with a punch-kick-kick-kick combo
I just wish that Raid 2 had a bit more fighting and a little less drama. I loved Raid 1 because it was very linear, with one clear good guy going up against an army of bad guys. He wore a uniform and was like a super cool ninja who had to fight for his life in every combat.
Fair warning: Raid 1 is 101 minutes long, but Raid 2 is 150 minutes long!
Rama training in prison in Raid 2 – Punching a wall
The films reminds me a bit of Jackie Chan’s ‘Police Story’ film series. The series constitutes 6 films, which always showed a single guy going up against the baddies, and sharing a bond with his comrades through the shared belief in the operation and in the need to sacrifice for the sake of eliminating evil.
Cheese Monkeys 