Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

IkhwanArif Indonesians Show The World That They Too Can Kick ArseAs a Malaysian, I am thoroughly in despair that my country will never be able to produce a film so beautifully raw as this. Malaysia has a censorship board that is ridiculously Orwellian; there should be no blood, no curse word, no crime - nothing to depict what the real world is. In short Malaysian Film Industry is a Feminist, Gynocentrist, Social Justice Warrior, Soyboy, cuckold excremental display. I am grateful that Indonesian film industry still have their testicles intact, and this film exhibits the raw unbridled potential of what South East Asian action movie are capable off. The action is bloody, well choreographed, well shot and totally convincing. Iko Uwais is a fantastic action star, his martial art is the real deal and you can really see it in his performance. The best scenes must be with his Karambit knife. Yayan Ruhian is also great as Mad Dog.Speaking of performances; I highly commend the director Gareth Evans for employing plain looking men for extras as well as using real locations for the shoot; it makes the film look wholly believable and immersive. Malay and Indonesian share a common root language and so, listening to the dialogue in it's native form has been enjoyable, because the acting all around is great, with every part big and small are played with urgency and intensity owing much to the language and how it is spoken. I recommend this film to anyone who loves action films.

pjfarley The movie takes place in the slums of Jakarta Indonesia. There is a drug overlord who is named Tama Riyadi. In the film, a swat team begins their mission to take down this drug lord. He lives in his apartment with all of his minions and associates. The swat team attempts their invasion of the building but are caught in a dangerous situation when their cover is blown. They are now trapped within the building and are lead by Lieutenant Wahyu in a deadly and action packed fight to survive. There is no backup coming to save them. There is no escape as the swat team would be killed if caught outside without cover. Their only option is to fight their way through Tama's men and kill the drug lord. I really enjoyed watching this film. One of my favorite scenes in the movie was when Rama and Dagu create a makeshift bomb to survive one of the many battles. This to me showed the extensive military training these men had. Another part that I enjoyed was when Mad Dog challenged Jaka to a fair fight with hand to hand combat. This was really cool as I love the hand to hand combat fight scenes and the choreography that it requires to make it look realistic. I really enjoyed the ending as it seemed relatively happy which, although I was always hoping for, I wasn't sure it would actually happen because it is not always guaranteed in foreign films which is exciting.

stevenjlowe82 This movie without a doubt is one of the most exhilarating and exhausting action movies I have ever watched. The action set pieces are incredible and the sheer amount of moves pulled off and blows delivered is truly remarkable. A massive kudos to all those involved behind the scenes and the actors themselves for giving such physical performances. Having said that belief does need suspended as some of the people in this film really do seem indestructible. For me some of the fight scenes towards the end did start to drag for me. It also had all the usual and predictable trappings of most action movies but guess that's hard to escape when doing this style of film. Overall a solid 6/10 and I'd probably watch it again.

jtindahouse I remember back in 2012 when the 'Dredd' came out, and turned out to be absolutely fantastic, everyone was comparing it to 'The Raid: Redemption' both in similarities of story line and in quality. Ever since then I've been meaning to get around to seeing it (and its sequel) and finally managed to tonight. I would say I was impressed, but not blown away. The film is absolutely non-stop action from the word go. There is zero let up from start to finish - but is that a good thing? I felt like the film never slowed down enough to allow itself to have a soul. What I mean by that is films with incredible pacing like 'The Dark Knight' (if you ever need 2 and a half hours to feel like 15 minutes, that's the film to go with) still manage to take the time to be thought-provoking. Now, 'The Raid: Redemption' is far from mindless and has some twists and turns along the way, but it never made me actually go into a deeper level of thinking on anything. This is what hinders it from being up there with the truly great films.There's a lot of of fun to had with this movie nonetheless. Some of the fight sequences are quite astonishing. I don't think the claustrophobic feel of the building was up to the same standard that 'Dredd' managed to create it to, though perhaps that was simply because this building had windows? There's certainly a lot to like here, and while it's far from perfect, I very much look forward to seeing what they managed to achieve with a bigger budget in the sequel.