Super Frat

The Raid: Redemption is an Indonesian action movie about a SWAT team that gets trapped in a tenement building run by a ruthless mobster.  It’s pretty fucking badass.  I can’t really reveal the plot details, as the revelations are spaced throughout, but it does follow a kind of classic, film noir set-up.  Our hero is an honest, rookie cop named Rama, who has a pregnant wife.  Rama is played by Iko Uwais, who kicks serious ass throughout.  The movie isn’t very heavy on plot, so don’t go if you’re expected The Departed.

Highlights include a deadly kung-fu knife fight (at least two or three times), a creative use for a refrigerator and several intense machete scenes.  (The bad guys in this movie really like their machetes.)  Yayan Ruhian plays Mad Dog, one of the lead mobsters bodyguards.  Unbelievably fast is all I can say about his moves.  He’s not in a lot of scenes, but pay attention, because his kicks are just that fast.  Do they CGI that stuff?  I don’t know.  Looked pretty real to me.

This movie is not for the squeamish.  There is more stabbing in this movie then all the Friday the 13th’s and Freddy Krueger movies combined.  Directed pretty ably by Gareth Evans, the movie was advertised as from “the makers of Kung Fu Hustle”.  I’m not sure who carried over from that.  Maybe the producers.  I honestly expected more comedy, like in Kung Fu Hustle, but the movie did not disappoint.  The action was just ridiculously over the top.  If you’re looking for a kickass action movie with lots of stabbing, it would be hard to find something better.

I give the movie 8.5 keggers out of 10.