Tuesday, 15 May 2012

The Raid [Serbuan maut]


Do you remember what it felt like the first time you watched Hard Boiled/The Killer?
No need to rely on memories any longer, just go see this. It will almost certainly be the best action film you've ever seen.
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8 comments:

  1. James16/05/2012, 10:21

    For the first half it was a fantastic action movie then a fight sequence in a corridor happened and my jaw hit the floor where it remained until the end credits. Fully deserving of all the hyperbole. Utter brilliance!

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  2. Ed24/05/2012, 11:11

    Incredible fight coreography, but definitely not the best action film I've ever seen. In fact, I think you could almost say it's more of a martial arts movie than an action movie from a certain point - i.e. when they run out of bullets.

    Obviously the plot doesn't really matter in a film like this but I couldn't understand why the old cop shoots the young cop at the end when he takes Tama hostage. Just so he doesn't get in the way? Seems a bit harsh!

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  3. McK25/05/2012, 21:19

    Despite the prevalence of fists and feet, as a whole I reckon this film owes more to John Carpenter & Walter Hill's eighties action heyday. The extended Mad Dog scrap brings to mind the epic fight from They Live and the machete gang are reminiscent of The Warriors' baseball furies to name but two key moments with strong echoes.

    The old cop shoots the young cop cos by that point he knows if he gets out the building he's going down for being corrupt, he needed the youngster's ninja skills to get him to Tama who is his ticket to a solo escape out of there at which point he's no longer needed. Plus it looked fucking cool.

    James and I were discussing action cinema in the aftermath of this, and with the exception of the aforementioned Hard Boiled/The Killer struggled to come up with anything close to this, certainly from the last decade or so. I'd still put Die Hard up there, but what else?

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  4. Ed25/05/2012, 22:27

    Yeah, you definitely have a point. I can't name a ton of action films I preferred to this, although the aforementioned Hard Boiled + Killer would definitely fit the bill and I also put Die Hard on the same level. I love Face/Off too, but I know it's not everyones' cup of tea.

    Beyond that, I'd add Infernal Affairs for the Hong Kong Movies, and on the Japanese side, Kitano's best yakuza films - Boiling Point, Sonatine and Brother. And Miike's Dead Or Alive of course. I suppose these might be classed as Crime films rather than Action, but that's a fine line, especially with DOA.

    I'm not really an authority on action films, but other personal faves include the Bourne trilogy (Identity in particular), Falling Down and North By Northwest.

    Could you call Battle Royale an action film? :-)

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  5. McK25/05/2012, 23:16

    Bourne's a good mention. Particularly Ultimatum.
    Thinking on it there's Michael Mann stuff like Miami Vice and Heat. There's the decent Bay stuff; The Rock, Bad Boys 2. MI3 was ace too.
    They're all up there just under The Raid.

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  6. Ed25/05/2012, 23:24

    Heat, yes! Ain't seen any of those Bay films, but if the movies I mentioned are all classifiably Action, I'd have The Raid at about number 10. Which still ain't bad going.

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  7. Ed25/05/2012, 23:58

    Some might say First Blood was worth a mention too - not me though, I can't take Sly's mumbling!

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  8. James26/05/2012, 14:33

    Raiders!

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