The Raid really is as good as everyone says it is. It’s a very slimed down action picture but all the right notes are hit. There’s the young cop with a pregnant wife, a bad guy brother (playing on the traditional two-sides-of-the-same-coin theme (cop/lawbreaker)), a rogue mission, police corruption, tons of henchmen, a crazy number two muscle man, a ruthless villain and a seemingly impossible situation to escape alive. It’s a simple story that definitely doesn’t overcomplicate things with the couple of subplots.
And the action is superb.
Most of it is hand to hand and all of it is intense. It never gets boring watching our hero go up
against hordes of scumbags and take them down with a knife or his bare hands
and feet. The two on one fight towards
the end is a particular highlight. Also,
we’re treated to longer takes that linger and don’t cut away so quickly and we
can see either the full body or most of the body in the frame. These techniques make for a clear
understanding of what’s going on in a fucking martial arts fight. This is how action should be photographed and
edited. It’s a beautiful thing.
I don’t think I’ve seen this much hand to hand in one movie
since Chocolate. I like that film better (the very last fight
is un-fucking-believable) but they’re two different types of pictures. One is about a martial arts savant while the
other involves a small group of cops attempting to take down an entire apartment
building worth of bad guys. Both are
great, just take your pick.
So check it out. What
are you waiting for? Someone to raid
your place and fight you to the death over it?
No comments:
Post a Comment