In theaters this Friday is director Gareth Evan’s action crime thriller “The Raid: Redemption,” and judging by it’s trailer it promises to take the action genre to another universe.
Set in the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta the film is about a SWAT team’s take over of an impenetrable safe house that holds the world’s most dangerous criminals. When the reconnaissance affair’s cover is spotted the specialists are trapped on the sixth floor of the building, with no way out, and everyone after them.
With the Indonesian martial arts star Iko Uwais–if you’ve never heard of him, well, wait until you see what he’s got–leading the cast, the trailer is the action-movie from our most psychopathic daydreams.
“The Raid,” transforms SWAT the way “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragons” changed our previous perceptions of ninjas: took them to the next level, of badass.
The action sequences found in the clips indulge our hyper-fantasized taste for violence as the camera doesn’t turn away from the blood, gore, and endless massacre of everyone infront of the camera. The choreography–my dear, isn’t it all just a dance?–is voltaic to one’s eyes, as neither of one’s eyes will want to blink first.
It’s no wonder why Evans’s newest film has been the genre darlings in many prestigious festivals.
Last year at the Toronto International Film Festival “The Raid” won the festival’s People’s Choice Award. Then, the film’s success stretched out to this year at the Dublin International Film Festival where the picture nabbed both Best Film awards from the Audience Award and from the Dublin Film Critics.
This is Evan’s third directorial effort following the 2006’s English film “Footsteps,” and 2009’s Indonesian picture, also starring Iko Uwais, “Merantau.” From a glance at Evan’s profile reveals he has been the grandmaster general for all of his creations as he has written, directed and edited each. As a result, Evan’s films, even from the trailers of each film, carries a cerebral execution in each and every frame that usually is nowhere to be found from today’s young filmmakers.
“The Raid: Redemption” gets released to audiences in the United States on March 23, and correctly received the Rated: R label for strong brutal bloody violence throughout and language, which is the last piece of advice to why one should definitely not want to miss this movie.
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