I think this movie is now closed in Brisbane unfortunately (we only caught it on the last day of it's run as it started while we were away overseas) but it may be on elsewhere and should come out on DVD so I'll still review it.
In short, The Raid is the most kick-ass action movie you will see this year. Really super violent, in a good way. The story is simple - a group of top end police officers are on a mission to infiltrate an apartment building to take down a criminal overlord and his henchmen. However, they have badly underestimated the situation and how many shady underworld types are living in the building. Their plan to quietly go in and take down only the people on their list goes astray when the alarm is raised by lookouts inside the building, and from there all hell breaks loose. The original 30 cops are reduced down to less than 10 within a very short space of time, and we follow the survivors as they try to fight their way out of this mess.
I should say here that despite having a Welsh director, the movie is set in Jakarta, Indonesia and is in the Indonesian language with English subtitles. Even if you don't like subtitles, this should not put you off because there is really not a lot of talking in this movie once it gets going.
The movie smartly puts much of the focus on a young cop, Rama, who has extensive martial arts skills. Not only is he a sympathetic hero (his wife is close to having a baby, which means you want him to live through this) he is also an incredible fighter and is given a reason to try to continue the mission against seemingly insurmountable odds. There are a large number of fight scenes in the movie involving many different types of weapons - handguns, machine guns, machetes, knives - but the most impressive scenes are the hand to hand combat, sometimes featuring improvised weapons like chairs, bins, walls and doors or whatever comes to hand. These fights are choreographed so, so well and you can fully understand what is happening and who is who and a lot of it feels really realistic. There isn't any wire work or CGI here and most of the time it looks real and brutal although in a few spots I thought they were pulling their punches. There is only one part of the movie where you feel that the fighters maybe should have been a bit more bruised and battered and sore than they were, but I can overlook that.
This movie is rated R for a reason - the fights and death scenes are brutal, they don't pull away from blood spurting from slashed throats and knees, or broken necks. One death in particular is really unique and cool and had the whole audience saying "Woah". In fact large parts of the movie were enjoyed very vocally by us and our fellow moviegoers. I even overheard one girl saying "Wow, I've never seen a movie like this before". I bet not many people have unless they are a big martial arts fan!
If you are into full on action movies or martial arts in any way, I think you'd enjoy this film. The tension is wound up tight as the mission quickly collapses, the action is brutal and non-stop and the storyline feels fresh even though I know it's not. I really enjoyed this one - I'd give it a 4 out of 5.
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Sunday, 8 April 2012
DVD Hall of Shame #1 - Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1
Several disclaimers upfront about this review:
1) I have read the Twilight books and quite liked them even though I didn't realise it was young adult fiction when I bought the first one.
2) I didn't mind the last Twilight movie.
3) I was on a plane flying to Thailand when I watched this movie in the seat back screen.
4) There will be spoilers in this review so do not read if you are planning to see this movie and don't know what happens.
Do any of the above influence how I felt about this movie? Possibly the third one (when you watch movies on a plane to Asia they have usually been cut, plus there are so many stops and starts and distractions on planes) did contribute but I think no matter where I saw it, it would still be a stinker. The first half of the book was so boring and this whole movie is the first half of the book.
The plot of this instalment is very basic - Edward and Bella get married, go on their honeymoon, fall pregnant and have a baby. That is why the movie is so boring. Literally nothing of interest happens for the first half an hour at least. The wedding is sappy and the honeymoon is sooooo slow and dull - Bella's "seduction" attempts on Edward are laughable. For a real-life hot and heavy couple, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson don't have a lot of chemistry even when acting out the sex scene which of course is heavily veiled for the teen audience, just as the book was. When Bella realises she is pregnant with a half human-half vampire baby, which should not be possible in the book's mythology, things do start to happen. The main one being that the werewolf pack finds out and decides the baby must be killed, which splits the pack as Jacob vs the rest. The vampires must band together to protect Bella, who is fighting her own battle against the baby inside her which grows too fast and has a thirst for blood.
The only action in this movie is a brief vamps and werewolves vs werewolves fight which is well executed. Everything else is just really dull, with even cornier dialogue than previous outings and Jacob rips his shirt off and runs off into the forest, muscles rippling, inside the first 3 minutes. The thing I found most annoying was the bits in the book that were left out of this movie, even though being split into two instalments there should be more time to cover things off. One of the more interesting parts was how Rosalie was made into a vampire and therefore why she is the only one who sides with Bella about the baby - this is all skipped over leaving you wondering why she is suddenly so protective when she had previously been very cold towards Bella. Another part that was not conveyed well in the movie if you haven't read the book was how BIG of a goodbye Bella is saying to her family as she leaves for the honeymoon. With her plan being to be turned into a vampire after the honeymoon, she will not be able to see her family and friends anymore. However, you wouldn't really understand the emotion from the movie and Kristen's acting, other than to think "wow, that was an extra long hug". OK, perhaps disclaimer #1 above does influence my view of the movie a little.
In summary, the movie is corny, boring and very average. The ending does promise something more interesting to happen in the final instalment, as the ruling Volturi clan get wind of the baby's existence and speculate on what her special power may be and how it might be of use or threat to them. Do not read the next sentence if you don't want a spoiler - stop reading now. The funniest thing about the ending is that it seems to be quite promising of action and drama, but if you've read the book, you will know that it is all a bit of an anti-climax. Will I be going? I think I'll wait for DVD.
1) I have read the Twilight books and quite liked them even though I didn't realise it was young adult fiction when I bought the first one.
2) I didn't mind the last Twilight movie.
3) I was on a plane flying to Thailand when I watched this movie in the seat back screen.
4) There will be spoilers in this review so do not read if you are planning to see this movie and don't know what happens.
Do any of the above influence how I felt about this movie? Possibly the third one (when you watch movies on a plane to Asia they have usually been cut, plus there are so many stops and starts and distractions on planes) did contribute but I think no matter where I saw it, it would still be a stinker. The first half of the book was so boring and this whole movie is the first half of the book.
The plot of this instalment is very basic - Edward and Bella get married, go on their honeymoon, fall pregnant and have a baby. That is why the movie is so boring. Literally nothing of interest happens for the first half an hour at least. The wedding is sappy and the honeymoon is sooooo slow and dull - Bella's "seduction" attempts on Edward are laughable. For a real-life hot and heavy couple, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson don't have a lot of chemistry even when acting out the sex scene which of course is heavily veiled for the teen audience, just as the book was. When Bella realises she is pregnant with a half human-half vampire baby, which should not be possible in the book's mythology, things do start to happen. The main one being that the werewolf pack finds out and decides the baby must be killed, which splits the pack as Jacob vs the rest. The vampires must band together to protect Bella, who is fighting her own battle against the baby inside her which grows too fast and has a thirst for blood.
The only action in this movie is a brief vamps and werewolves vs werewolves fight which is well executed. Everything else is just really dull, with even cornier dialogue than previous outings and Jacob rips his shirt off and runs off into the forest, muscles rippling, inside the first 3 minutes. The thing I found most annoying was the bits in the book that were left out of this movie, even though being split into two instalments there should be more time to cover things off. One of the more interesting parts was how Rosalie was made into a vampire and therefore why she is the only one who sides with Bella about the baby - this is all skipped over leaving you wondering why she is suddenly so protective when she had previously been very cold towards Bella. Another part that was not conveyed well in the movie if you haven't read the book was how BIG of a goodbye Bella is saying to her family as she leaves for the honeymoon. With her plan being to be turned into a vampire after the honeymoon, she will not be able to see her family and friends anymore. However, you wouldn't really understand the emotion from the movie and Kristen's acting, other than to think "wow, that was an extra long hug". OK, perhaps disclaimer #1 above does influence my view of the movie a little.
In summary, the movie is corny, boring and very average. The ending does promise something more interesting to happen in the final instalment, as the ruling Volturi clan get wind of the baby's existence and speculate on what her special power may be and how it might be of use or threat to them. Do not read the next sentence if you don't want a spoiler - stop reading now. The funniest thing about the ending is that it seems to be quite promising of action and drama, but if you've read the book, you will know that it is all a bit of an anti-climax. Will I be going? I think I'll wait for DVD.
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