The action movie has evolved over the decades in Hollywood. Starting from the cool loner movies where #ClintEastwood as Dirty Harry epitomised the action star to #ArnoldSchwarzenegger as the blood-thirsty freak in #LAstActionHero. Closer home, Bollywood as seen the dishum-dishum of the eighties give way to the flying stunts of Singham #AjayDevgn and now to stylized fight routines of #War with #HrithikRoshan and #TigerShroff. The Asian movies though have evolved on different lines with action being equalised with supreme standards of martial arts calling for ultimate levels of fitness in hand-to hand combats. Along the way, the collateral damage is a lot of crushed hands and legs, caved-in heads, blood and gore.
ASHOK’s FIVE reviews the Indonesian films #TheRaid: Redemption and #TheRaid directed by #GarethEvans and streaming on #AmazonPrime. The films are subtitled in English. The first one is a simple enough plot – 21 SWAT commandos storm a building occupied by a drug lord. The 100-minute film is non-stop action of how the commandos neutralise the villain by winning the battle on each floor.
#TheRaid is the action-movie fan’s delight. Minimum dialogues, maximum fights. There are of course the stereotyped dialogues peppered in “We have company” but the focus never shifts from the physical combats. For the uninitiated though, there is a motley bunch of scenes that can leave you gasping – the crushed bone, the smashed-in head and the gush of blood from a stab.
#IkoUwais plays the lead, Rama as the devout family man cop. The cast includes #JoeTaslim as Jaka and #DoniAlamsyah as Andi. The screenplay though does not make any pretense to character development as it pays tribute to the action.
There is of course the epic fight featuring Mad Dog (#YayanRuhiar) and his penchant for fights to death. As he says “This is the pulse…Pulling a trigger is like ordering take-out”
The sequel eschews some of the violence but is cast in the same mould with a little more emphasis on building the story.
#TheRaid series leaves you wondering why popular Hindi cinema did not pick up cues from Asian cinema especially in the area of action and stunts. Given the diversity of states and people and the all-round popularity of martial arts it is like a sad miss!
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