The Raid: Redemption (2011)
Starring: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsyah
Now this is the kind of movie I like. In my opinion, there are few things better than a well-done popcorn action flick like The Raid: Redemption. I'm talking about the kind of movie The Expendables is supposed to be celebrating. The type of movies that were oh-too-common in Hollywood in the 1980s and most of the 1990s: classics like Predator, Die Hard, and The Rock. Movies that had a straightforward premise, great characters, and tons of ass-kicking while still managing to squeeze in a somewhat comprehensible and non-eyeroll-worthy plot. The Raid: Redemption is all of that and more. And as a result, Hollywood better watch out.
I'm not at all familiar with the Indonesian movie industry, so I don't know the quality and production value of a typical Indonesian movie. Budget-wise, The Raid may be the Avatar of Indonesian films for all I know. But I also know that it is as polished and stylish-looking as any action movie to come out of Hollywood recently. Not that Hollywood has bothered making very many movies like this at all recently. The poster for the The Raid proudly declares it "the best action movie in decades". That is pretty hyperbolic, and I don't think it's true either, but it's a lot closer to the truth than I may have thought prior to seeing the movie. The fact is, Hollywood just doesn't deal in these kinds of movies anymore. It's an original story not based on any book or video game. It's not a comic book movie. And it's not a sequel. When was the last time a blockbuster Hollywood action movie wasn't at least one of those things?
And that's too bad. Because we know Hollywood is capable of making movies like this if they just put up the effort. And The Raid is so much fun. If there was a checklist for making a kick-ass action flick, I think nearly all the boxes would be checked off for this film. We establish in the opening moments of the movie that the main character is a complete badass. We see his pregnant wife, establishing what is at stake for him. And we don't bother revisiting that story much throughout the film. No overly sappy stuff here. Just enough to make you think "this guy really wants to get home, and I'm rooting for him". And when the "twist" is revealed near the end, those little details make it more significant. It's very elegant and very well-done.
Words like "simple" and "elegant" are easily applied to The Raid. This movies knows exactly what it is. It's so comfortable in it's skin, and I applaud director Gareth Evans for that. He really has total control of the subject matter. He establishes the premise very clearly, and very early on. There is a big condemned building with a bunch of very bad dudes in there, including one crime lord who is the baddest dude of them all (and if there is an American remake of this movie, I demand that Benicio Del Toro play the crime lord role. I spent half the movie trying to decide if the guy playing the crime lord was Del Toro's Indonesian half-brother or something). Now this team of elites is going in to take him down. OK, let's go. That's all, in terms of setup. From there, the action starts, and it literally does not stop until the end. The setting of the movie is genius: a condemned building. Everything is dilapidated. So walls, floors, and other miscellaneous objects are constantly being broken through and destroyed. There are tons of random items laying around to be thrown, thrown into and used in a variety of creative and ass-kicking ways. The environment becomes a character. And the fights are so well-choreographed and convincing. Just really brutal, painful-looking stuff. It's really amazing.
One downside of all this is that because there are so many fights, and the environment stays pretty much the same throughout, some of the fights do take on a same-y feeling. But there are enough creative (and sometimes cringe-inducing) set pieces thrown in to keep things very exciting. And it's not just ass-kicking of the martial arts variety, either. There are plenty of gunfights, knife fights, and sniper fights to go around as well! The body count is significant, to say the least. This movie is basically Die Hard if John McClane was a mixture of Jet Li and the Indian guy from Predator. How can you turn down that premise? Iko Uwais lacks the natural charisma of an actor like Bruce Willis, but I understand he is a young and relatively inexperienced actor. Plus, when the fights start, he is charismatic as hell. Knowing that he is a real-life martial arts bad-ass gives him a little more street cred, as well. And he succeeds in being sympathetic enough in the scenes with his wife and brother. I look forward to seeing where Uwais goes from here, and if he can develop into a legit Hollywood action star similar to other Asian imports like Li and Jackie Chan before him.
The ending of this movie leaves things pretty open for a sequel, and I don't know how I feel about that. Sequels to great action movies have a real problem living up to their predecessors. Plus, I kind of like the idea of this movie as a one-off slap to the face of Hollywood, essentially saying, "Hey, if you're not going to make this kind of movie, the rest of the world will! Wake up!". Unfortunately, I don't think Hollywood did or will get the message. After all, instead of developing new action properties or young action stars, they'll just remake this movie with a bunch of white people in it. It's encouraging that Sly Stallone continues to develop his Expendables movies as a sort of love letter to the old-school action flick. And it's great to see all those old action stars onscreen together again. But, here's a suggestion to you, Sly: instead of retreading old memories, how about watching a movie like The Raid. Take note of how original it is. And how it manages to feel familiar while still being fresh and new. And then go out and try to make a movie like that. Good luck.
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