How to resolve AdBlock issue? THE RAID: REDEMPTION (Rated R)
I know the big movie of the week is “The Hunger Games,” but the studio did not screen it widely in advance, probably because it is a genre movie like “Harry Potter” and “Twilight.”
With a built-in audience eagerly in waiting, “The Hunger Games” is one of those bulletproof films that will likely do amazing business at the box office regardless of what critics have to say.
As an alternative, “The Raid: Redemption” is an Indonesian film that made its North American debut at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where it gained a lot of buzz from an apparently bloodthirsty audience.
To call “The Raid” a mixed martial arts movie requires redefinition of that physical art to include machetes and machine guns along with a barrage of fists and feet causing maximum damage.
Directed by Welsh-born Gareth Evans, “The Raid” works from a deceptively simple premise, as practically the entire plot revolves around a police assault on a tenement building controlled by drug lord Tama (Ray Sahetapy).
First and foremost, this Indonesian action film is like an extended violent video game, almost entirely lacking in humanity. Don’t expect much beyond jaw-dropping, bloody brutality.
However, the one character with a compelling personal story is expectant father Rama (Iko Uwais), an honest cop with killer fighting instincts who has the primary role to play in the police raid.
The audience instinctively knows that Rama is the good guy when the film opens with him in a tender moment with his pregnant wife as he prepares for his big mission.
Within minutes, the focus of “The Raid” turns to Rama and his crew in a police van on their way to Tama’s 15-story tenement building, where the drug lord is holed up on the top floor.
Under the command of a mysterious police lieutenant, the tactical squad, armed with knives, pistols and automatic weapons, has an objective to secure one floor at a time in order to take down Tama.
This mission is incredibly dangerous and suicidal, as even the bravest cops have never been able to breach Tama’s fortress in the past. Not surprisingly, the stealth mission is quickly compromised.
Tama is a vicious criminal kingpin who uses his building to shelter his army of loyal dealers and many customers, all of whom are more than willing to take up arms against any invaders.
It takes only a matter of minutes for the police undercover operation to be blown, resulting in about half of the team being shredded in a barrage of gunfire and machetes.
Still, some of the cops manage to survive, including the valiant Rama, and they realize the only way out of their predicament is a determination to complete the mission and take out Tama for good.
The end result is a non-stop bloodbath that unleashes violence so brutal and unrelenting that “The Raid” might as well be marketed as a video game unsuitable for impressionable adolescents.
A serious drawback is the deficiency of character development which might give viewers a greater rooting interest in the heroic exploits of Rama and his dwindling crew.
Nevertheless, it’s very impressive to see Rama almost singlehandedly continue his explosive march through a seemingly endless parade of henchmen and drug-addled crazies.
Though not in wide release, “The Raid: Redemption” will find its audience looking for vicarious thrills in bloody action that makes audiences gasp.
TELEVISION UPDATE
Few television shows get more press coverage and less viewers than “Mad Men,” and that’s unlikely to change any time soon.
Anyone who has not been watching “Mad Men” on the AMC Network all along could not be expected to pick up on the storylines and intrigues of a Madison Avenue advertising agency.
It’s bad enough that the show has been on a long hiatus, and now the fifth season picks up somewhere in the mid-Sixties, when New York City loses its glamour as urban decay begins to set in.
The new season picks up where Jon Hamm’s debonair ad man Don Draper is making a go of his impulsive decision in the last season to propose to his secretary.
Those who were curious about Don’s rash engagement to Megan (Jessica Pare) will learn some interesting things in the season premiere.
Over at the Reelz Channel, Steven Seagal, who apparently has run out of opportunities for martial arts films, brings his crime fighting style to the new TV series “True Justice.”
Seagal leads a hardcore undercover team of Seattle cops who take on the local criminal element with the high-octane style that marked so many of his films.
One problem for “True Justice” may be the inability of the target audience to locate the Reelz Channel.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
Relentlessly violent 'Raid' is all about the action
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