The Raid: Redemption: A Fast-Paced, Bloody, Explosive Good Time

The Raid: Redemption is not merely a movie, it's a bloody explosion of violence. And I mean that in the most complimentary way. It's an old school kind of martial arts movie, but with the frenetic energy needed to satisfy today's generation. It's expertly choreographed and edited, leaving you spinning and breathless by the film's end.

The plot follows-oh, who cares? In The Raid, the plot is merely a necessary preliminary, something that must be dealt with before we get to the action. But I suppose some background is essential.

The movie takes place in Jakarta, Indonesia, (there are subtitles) and follows the character of Rama, a rookie police officer who's as much of a Boy Scout as they come. The introduction firmly establishes him as a master of the martial arts and a good husband to his pregnant wife. It also gives us our first taste of the specific kind of Indonesian martial art that the film acts as a showcase for: pencak silat. (I wouldn't know how to pronounce it either.)

Tama then heads to work, as he is apparently part of an elite team of police. His mission for the day is to apprehend the ruthless, vicious crime boss Tama, who lives in a 15-story building and rents out all the rooms out to various types of brutal underworld thugs. Apparently, no group, lawful or unlawful, has ever been able to take the building.

Of course, Rama and his team are eventually spotted, and Tama alerts the building's residents and offers them some hefty rewards if they manage to kill the police. Let the chaos begin!

And does it ever. The fight scenes are perfectly executed and expertly edited, and the camera seems to defy gravity itself. Pretty soon you get scenes involving Rama fighting a group armed with machetes,which leads to this guy's leg getting sliced open, that guy getting his throat cut, but that's only after an improvised explosion involving a refrigerator and a gas tank. You get the idea.

Part of the insane genius of The Raid is its unapologetic refusal to be anything other than what it is; it makes absolutely no concessions to the mainstream. This movie is for a very specific kind of audience. You'll either be sickened by it or you'll love it. So action fans: run, don't walk to theater and see it. Everyone else? Well, you've been warned.

And there's more coming: there's apparently a sequel and a Hollywood remake in the works. It seems impossible to improve on this, but I can't wait to be proven wrong.

Grade: A+