Movie review: The Raid (+trailer)

The Raid offers some deft manoeuvres as well as killer one-liners. Photo / Supplied

There is a classic action movie-style line in Indonesian martial arts film The Raid.

It's when Mad Dog, the pint-sized and quite possibly immortal martial arts villain, says cheekily to head cop Jaka that "pulling the trigger ... it's like ordering take-out".

He throws away his gun and so begins another bout of bruising, bloody, and neck-breaking action.

It could be a line Bruce Willis might say during Die Hard, and The Raid draws on that blockbuster series for inspiration.

The difference is, it's more brutal, inventive, and thrilling. It's also fun to watch - in between flinching and groaning delightedly at the broken bones and many gruesome deaths.

The Raid is the follow-up to Welsh director Gareth Evans' 2009 film Merantau, and once again is based around his obsession with the Indonesian martial art of pencak silat.

The film follows a SWAT team's assault on a compound in the Jakarta slums where a bunch of crims, led by drug lord Tama and his right-hand-man Mad Dog, are holed up.

Though Jaka is confident they can head in to the stronghold and "clean up this f****** city", it's his team who get picked off rather quickly by the gangsters.

Eventually the few remaining cops are stranded on the sixth floor and it's up to the unassuming yet tough Rama (played by upcoming martial arts film star and choreographer Iko Uwais) to get them out.

Set almost entirely in one location - a murky and decrepit 30-storey tower block which makes for a sinister and realistic hangout for Jakarta's hardcore underbelly - the building is perfect for being shot to pieces and booted to bits by flying kicks.

It's almost as if the building is transparent, as bullets slice through solid objects in super-slow motion on their way to their targets, and the cameras take you along for the ride as a pack of machete-wielding gangsters roam the halls looking for "scraps".

One of the most remarkable things about the film is that the majority of the cast are fighters, not actors - and the intense and often haunting performances they give are stunning.

And their fighting skills - mainly pencak silat, but with judo, guns and blades thrown in to make it interesting - are even better. Like when Mad Dog fights on even though he has a fluorescent light bulb tube stuck in his neck. It's bloody great stuff, with a hint of Hollywood bravado to it.

And though it's the action that counts, the storyline bubbles along too, with the baddies, dodgy cops, and heroes entwined in a tale of double-crosses, nasty twists and brother pitted against brother.

It is a riveting film, from the visceral fight scenes through to the many imaginative ways the victims meet their deaths.

Stars: 4.5/5
Cast: Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, Joe Taslim
Director: Gareth Evans
Running time: 100 mins
Rating: R18 (Graphic violence & offensive language) in Indonesian with English subtitles
Verdict: It could just be action movie of the year

-TimeOut