The Raid: Redemption

There's not much to say about The Raid other than it's a great, violent action thriller. Go watch it. Unless you're put off by that description you'll like it.I'm mainly writing this review, though, to say: don't wait to see this on broadcast television or download, because the disc is a great package. This is a film that you won't want to watch dubbed, for a start, because the acting is very good and the Indonesian language is actually a joy to hear. (The dubbing actors are, to be honest, not very good by comparison.) The film is not at all heavy on dialogue, so subtitles are not going to distract you, and the soundtracks are in DTSHD-Master for both English and Indonesian versions.The director, rather to my surprise, is a Welshman (Gareth Evans) who gives two informative feature-length commentaries, one with one of the film's stars. You have to poke around a bit to find the second commentary in the rather cluttered menu design (one is in Setup, the other in Bonus Features, or of course you can simply use your audio button to select) but both are worth hearing. There are a load of extra features including a Q&A featuring Evans and the soundtrack composers. The soundtrack also gets its own featurette and don't forget to watch the claymation version of the film, which is enjoyable in itself.My only complaint is that the original Indonesian soundtrack seems to have been replaced by the second soundtrack, which was composed for the US release. It would have been nice to have two different music tracks, not least because the "lost" soundtrack was actually composed by the film's sound designers, and was the version on which the director himself did the most work. (That said, the US soundtrack is fine: no licensed Hip Hop here, thank God.)Visually this is not a $200 million movie, and there are certainly some visual flaws that get carried over to the Blu-Ray, but it's still a good-looking disc and the action scenes are well worth rewatching once you get done with the generous extras. One stunt was so amazing that I rewound it on first viewing; having watched the bonus materials I now know how they did it, but there are plenty of "hell yeah" moments that justify having this in your collection.

An incredible action thriller that deserves a larger audience. I first seen THE RAID about 10 years ago, long after it's theatrical run. Word of mouth had informed me that it was something special, so I eventually picked up a copy of it on Blu-ray.I went into it completely blind, not knowing who was in it, or even knowing the country of origin or the language being spoken (Its Indonesian).None of that mattered once the film began as it is very much a case of "all thriller, no filler". The opening few scenes provide the bare minimum of exposition and from there on in, it is a relentless 90-something minutes of incredible tension and brilliantly choreographed violence.Stylishly shot and intense, this is right up there with John Woo's pre-Hollywood classics.Having a modest budget, the film originally had a dark and murky look, but this new 4K restoration is quite spectacular.

When I first loaded up the BluRay I was presented with two options, 1) British Cinema release or 2) Uncut Version. Not knowing what the differences were I went for the uncut version, but found that much of the gore was left to the imagination which suited me fine.The next thing I found (and this shows my ignorance about the movie) is that I was presented with subtitles, but I soon realised that the action took over the need for detailed dialogue so it turned out not to be an issue for me.Some of the comments on here mention about the action from start to finish and short of the first 10 minutes of the film the action doesn't really stop.The stunts performed are some of the best I've seen in any a film and I bet there must of been some injuries in the filming as they are just so good. The fight scenes have excellent timing and whilst the odd fight seemed to go on well beyond any human could endure, they all seemed to keep me glued to the screen because of their variety. The camera work is good and right on top of the action.If you're expecting to see a gun fest you will be disappointed as the use of guns becomes quickly taken over with martial arts moves which then become the mainstay of the film.If you want to see an action movie with little dialogue, practically zero gung-ho and some polished martial arts choreography with a straightforward story from a genre that doesn't often hit the blockbuster spot these days then you could do worse than buy this movie.On the strength of this first movie I will buy Raid2.