Raid!

The Raid: Redemption seems like it should have been an obscure gem, an Indonesian action film. However, it won the Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness award for 2011, and it got the attention it deserves.

The plot is simple: A gangster and his mob are living in a high-rise apartment building in Jakarta. A highly trained, heavily armed police squad is going in to take him out. They start out quietly, taking floors quickly without raising the alarm. But it can't last.

What you get is relentless, brutal action. The police and gangsters do their mayhem with large and small arms, long and short blades, their bare hands and feet, and improvised weapons. Unlike a lot of action movies, the violence is more-or-less realistically lethal: people don't dodge point-blank bullets or take a bullet to the shoulder and fight on. When shot, they die. And when a man with a knife attacks a man with a gun, it's over quickly.

But it isn't all gunplay. We get to see a good range of fighting styles, with an emphasis on pencak silat, Indonesia's native martial arts style. It is energetic, almost acrobatic, and features plenty of weapon work, especially blades.

I won't go into the "plot", because I wasn't always following it. Same with the "characters" or the outstanding athlete/actors - suffice it to say that everyone is great, the fight choreography is amazing and the direction is crystal clear. Also the action never stops.

I don't know if director Gareth Evans or star Iko Uwais have raised the bar for these kind of movies like say, Luc Besson or Tony Jaa, but they certainly cleared it.