The Raid / Serbuan Maut (2012)

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

My son and I are going to see this tomorrow, as soon as I pick him up from school. We are so freaking excited! If the timing works out, we'll go straight from this to Philly to see the uncut print of SCHOOL ON FIRE that they're showing. How's that for a double feature?

I will, of course, be posting tomorrow night about the film (or films).

You're the best dad ever!!!!

[David Rees]

Nice, let us know what you thought. How old is your son?

[Tosh]

My son and I are going to see this tomorrow, as soon as I pick him up from school. We are so freaking excited! If the timing works out, we'll go straight from this to Philly to see the uncut print of SCHOOL ON FIRE that they're showing. How's that for a double feature?

I will, of course, be posting tomorrow night about the film (or films).

Bob, your going to absolutely love this! I'd love to see a double bill of The Raid and Ong Bak 2:nerd:

I'm planning on seeing it again next week, the theater it's playing at has a premier theater with a bar and waiters for the late showing.

Mr Evans - your a class act to come on here during your busy schedule, your movie is like a love letter to us old school kung fu fans, believe me no one appreciates great fight choreography like the people on this forum!

[KUNG FU BOB]

You're the best dad ever!!!!

Nice, let us know what you thought. How old is your son?

He's five. But this kind of gory action film should help him grow up to be a kind and well-centered person. Just kidding! He'll be 18 in a month. He's an amazing, cool, thoughtful young man (the opposite of his Dad? ). We're very lucky.

Bob, your going to absolutely love this! I'd love to see a double bill of The Raid and Ong Bak 2:nerd:

I've no doubt. Yes! That would be so cool. Well, when the DVD comes out we can make that a Saturday afternoon thing to do.

I'm planning on seeing it again next week, the theater it's playing at has a premier theater with a bar and waiters for the late showing.

Nice! I've only ever been to one theater like that- the Alamo Drafthouse. Loved it. No one talked or texted or made phone calls during the movies. Everyone was there... get this far-out concept... to see and enjoy the movie! Watching a great film while a quiet, friendly person serves you a huge plate of chicken strips and fries with a cold beer? Are you kidding? It was pure cinephile Heaven.

Mr Evans - your a class act to come on here during your busy schedule, your movie is like a love letter to us old school kung fu fans, believe me no one appreciates great fight choreography like the people on this forum!

I second that. Gareth, we love that you have joined the forum and are communicating with us. Very cool of you sir!

[bigrogie]

It plays at a theater 10 minutes away from my office so at noon I will have one of what I call «pop corn lunch» and treat myself to this movie everyone is raving about! :tongue:

[rdenn]

looks like this is already showing in london http://www.cineplex.com/Theatres/TheatreDetails/SilverCity-London-Cinemas.aspx

just got told this is in canada not london but it it showing in the ritzy cinema in brixton Friday 20 April, from 9.45 a double bill with hard boiled so some of the london crew should be out to watch this one

http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Ritzy_Picturehouse/news/item/Picturehouse_Podcast_Presents_The_Raid_Hard_Boiled/

[Biomorph]

Great Film!!! Saw it monday,still digesting it. Downtown Montreal crowd reacted well,I agree BEST KNIFE FIGHTS EVER! AWESOME group chreography!

Very tense moments and a streamlined story perfect for action storytelling.

This man knows how to shoot action!

[bigrogie]

Just came back from seeing The Raid. My first and basically only criteria to like a movie is did it entertained me. Hell yeah it did! First 30 minutes is mostly gun shooting. SWAT team vs bad guys with guns. Nothing I haven't seen before and it did not blow me away but very well filmed and good action. However, the next hour is simply WOW and amazing! Great fight scenes, hand to hand combat, knives, machetes. Basically non stop action with great choreography. As good as it gets! I didn't know it was Indonesian language with subs (I prefer dubbed movies) but it didn't matter, you could even watch this movie with no subs and still enjoy it the same. Very well done.

[KUNG FU BOB]

just got told this is in canada not london but it it showing in the ritzy cinema in brixton Friday 20 April, from 9.45 a double bill with hard boiled

Double-billed with HARDBOILED?! How sweet is that?

Went with my son to see this yesterday. I picked him up from school and we went straight to the twilight show. As we were buying the tickets I asked the young guy waiting on us if he'd seen it. He raved "I'm not a subtitle guy. The last film I saw with subtitles was CROUCHING TIGER. But this was just insane! Other than about ten minutes, it's non-stop action! I've been telling everyone I know that they've got to see it. It doesn't even matter that it's subtitled. You guys are going to love it." Cool....

Including us there were only five people in the theater! Though I was disappointed for the filmmakers- as I want this to sell to sold out shows, it is typically empty during that time slot (even for popular blockbusters), and we figured less distractions. The other patrons were great- no talking, texting, cell phones, et.

WE LOVED IT!

The film has great suspense and build up of tension. Director Evans chose the perfect way to intro the character and give a little glimpse of his skill sets (like a serious version of the "wake up work out" from WHEELS ON MEALS).

It has a good, realistic blend of gun and martial arts action. Though Iko and the others pull off some fantastic moves, it never looks like "Check out the fancy moves we can do" in a demo sort of way (which is something that's been haunting action cinema).

The combat looks very practical and is filmed in an exciting, but clear way. The combat with blades and hand-to-hand is handled like a professional would utilize these skills in a real-life situation. It's very much a matter of speed, and the attempt to create maximum, crippling damage with the least amount of energy output possible. For example, instead of giving a guy a simple slash with the knife that would injure him but leave him still mobile and dangerous, Iko's character stabs him high in the thigh, then pulls the knife the length of his upper leg and out through the kneecap. He's NOT getting up to fight anymore! There's a lot of clever thinking on the character's part as he tries to survive, and he uses his intelligence to make the most efective use of his skills. I really dig that. Sure, seeing a mindless badass just muscling through tough situations can be cool, but seeing the characters in THE RAID behave with relatable behaviors makes you connect that much more with them. Yes, he has Hella good skills. But when cornered by four machette-wielding thugs he doesn't start cracking wise, nor wade into them with a smug "who cares?" smile. He seriously looks like "Oh shit. I hope I don't die. This is really bad." Then he musters up his courage and goes all "Do or Die" as he faces his foes. This kind of realistic fear of dying or being maimed makes the fights so much more exciting. When people are slashing at him with knives he really looks like he's in actual danger, and he moves with an urgency that many action films are missing. It never appears like the actors/stunt guys are thinking "Okay, dodge to the left to avoid the rubber knife. Ah... if I don't move fast enough... no big deal. We'll do another take". They (especially Iko) are jumping and dodging out of the way like their asses are truly on the line!

Also, major kudos to these guys for bringing back the goods- a memorable fighting villain (Mad Dog) that's a real challenge to the hero's skills, and long ass final fights- from our beloved genre classics of years gone by.

How good is it? As an action film I would give it a 9.5-10. Exciting, cool, full of gasp-inducing moments. The second it was over my son said "How long until we can get this on BluRay?" Then we wound up talking about it for a good hour while eating dinner. We both want to see it again right away. I had to watch MERANTAU's fights when I got home to satiate my desire to see THE RAID again immediately.

I really can't recommend this enough. Please support these guys and this great film by seeing it (at least once) in the theater. This film deserves to be seen on the big screen, and we're not usually lucky enough to see something like this everyday in the theater. Don't think about it. DO IT!

Sadly, my truck (which was just repaired ) was acting kind of funny, so I didn't want to risk driving to the city before having it looked at. So we missed SCHOOL ON FIRE's special, uncut version screening. :squigglemouth:This would have been way more of a bummer if we weren't coming out of seeing this killer film.

[daisho2004]

@KFB: I told you this movie was all that and then some!

[sifu iron perm]

20th April @ brixton.

any more dates let me know.

cheers.

[xianzai]

Loved it. If I were to pick nits, I would have preferred it to be less gory, and for certain of the fights (such as the drug lab) to be slightly trimmed, as they got a bit repetitive.

[trueth]

Had to drive 4 hours (round trip) but it was worth it. Hands down the best film I've seen this year, possibly the best MA film I've seen in the last decade. Choreography was crisp yet brutal. Kudos to the director, clearly he knows how to shoot action sequences. MA cinema has been put on notice. Can't wait for Berandal.

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

My favorite shot in the movie is when Iko throws one of the thugs from the top floor giving it a vertigo angle and then the guy lands on his back cracks in half, AWESOME!!!!

[trueth]

My favorite shot in the movie is when Iko throws one of the thugs from the top floor giving it a vertigo angle and then the guy lands on his back cracks in half, AWESOME!!!!

Mad Dog standing between the brothers is my favorite shot. He's just daring them to attack him.

[KUNG FU BOB]

Favorite shot for me was the move that pulls the guy onto the broken door. So cool.

[xianzai]

If I had to pick one, it would be one of the first knife fights where Iko stabs one of the guys several times, making it clear the knife fights are something new (to me, at least). It was like watching the tea house fight in Hard Boiled and seeing that level of heroic bloodshed for the first time (I'd watched lots of HK MA movies before).

I'm not sure how well this cinematic knife fighting style will do if others try to adopt it; it seems easy to screw up and make it look completely implausible.

---

On another topic about the film, I think Indonesia has the toughest fluorescent tubes in the world.

[Tosh]

I think my favorite part was when Iko got cornered by the machete guys and realizes he has to fight through them, what am I talking about when they ran out of ammo it just gets better and better!

Spoilers...

If I was to nit-pick, one thing that bothered me was the camera system was a little inconsistent, it saw everything, but then the guy was surprised when they coming busting through the door? I mean if he had cameras everywhere wouldn't he known they were on his floor? There could of been a scareface moment where the main bossman doesn't go down without a fight, or they could of had Iko's brother somehow disconnect it after he's caught(I was waiting for him to throw something at the monitors). I understand they probably needed to wrap it up, kind of a small detail that's a bit nagging but can be overlooked giving the movie as a whole.

[MonkeyFu]

Thought I would add my thoughts on this one too.

GO SEE IT NOW!

I was a little afraid going in that it might be over-hyped, but it's not. Excellent movie on many different levels and the action is superb.

Some things that hit me as I was watching were:

• I was immediatly drawn into the story and wanted to see what happened and how it progressed. Not something modern action films do well at all, so it was a nice surprise!
  
• The film makers actually seemed to pay attention to details and had really thought out each scene.
  
• Sound design was awesome! Great use of sound here, especially little touches like the scrapping of the machette when it was being pulled out from under the wooden table.
  
• The creativity and flow of the action. Death by door frame, for instance! And the cinematography made sense. The shots felt natural and didn't detract from the action.
  
• It doesn't take a big budget to make an excellent action movie. Made me feel like how I felt when I saw Drive (Mark Dacascos) for the first time. I'm not comparing the movies, but just mean that it was great to see that passion and talent make a huge difference.
  

I just want to thank Gareth and his crew for creating this outstanding movie! And for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, don't hesitate, you will enjoy it.

[MonkeyFu]

I think my favorite part was when Iko got cornered by the machete guys and realizes he has to fight through them, what am I talking about when they ran out of ammo it just gets better and better!

Spoilers...

If I was to nit-pick, one thing that bothered me was the camera system was a little inconsistent, it saw everything, but then the guy was surprised when they coming busting through the door? I mean if he had cameras everywhere wouldn't he known they were on his floor? There could of been a scareface moment where the main bossman doesn't go down without a fight, or they could of had Iko's brother somehow disconnect it after he's caught(I was waiting for him to throw something at the monitors). I understand they probably needed to wrap it up, kind of a small detail that's a bit nagging but can be overlooked giving the movie as a whole.

Answer to Spoiler...

I have to disagree. If there was any suprise, I think it was due to the fact that anyone actually got to his door in the first place. Given his set-up, he may not have even had cameras on the top floor because if anyone got that far, it would be pretty obvious.

Also, the boss did actually seem to know they were there as he was clearly trying to get something knowing that they were getting close.

[daisho2004]

Well I don't know if a lot of you Guys have seen but the The Raid has gotten a bigger release in more theaters, I'm going to see it again this week close to my house!

[trueth]

Well I don't know if a lot of you Guys have seen but the The Raid has gotten a bigger release in more theaters, I'm going to see it again this week close to my house!

I'm tempted to drive another 2 hours just to see this again

[OldPangYau]

Finally saw this today as well... oh my GOD! I always get worried when movies get seemingly too much praise, but this film deserved it. The high point for me was the final 2-vs-1 fight against Mad Dog. With the hell that Rama went through to make it this far, you really wanted to see him make it through this fight, and the conclusion to it was just insane! Damn, those fluorescent bulbs can be dangerous

[froffeecoffee]

Man O Man! Saw this 2 days in a row! It is worth the hype and more!!! Everything everyone says is true! This film is insanely great!

Can't wait for The Raid 2!

[mark187]

I saw it for a second time tonight with a couple more friends, they both loved it. small crowd this time around, and the theater sound wasn't half as good as the ND/NF screening in NYC. nevertheless, the movie is still as awesome as ever! unfortunately though, when I bought my ticket the girl warned me the film was subtitled, and that the theater had been instructed to warn everyone because they had some people complain! I just laughed and said I know, and saved her from a rant. are there really people out there missing out on one of the greatest action films of all time because it's a subtitled film?!