The Raid 2
Director: Gareth Evans
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 2.5
Near-indestructible super-cop Rama (Iko Uwais) is sent to an Indonesian prison undercover (!?) in order to get in the good graces of an up-and-coming mob boss (Arifin Putra) and help expose corruption in the police force. As far as a follow up to the successful Raid back in 2011, it's more of the same (for better or worse): an exercise in ultra violence that's largely style and very little substance that presses its limit with an extended running time (two and a half hours!) but gets admittedly inventive with the martial arts moves and choreography (say what you will about Evans as a director, but he knows how to stage a fight sequence). Evans must have cast half of the able bodied Indonesian guys he could find (between the ages of 18 and 40) to chase after Uwais and allow him to break their legs, hit them with hammers, smash them against walls, etc.: orchestrated anarchy as entertainment.
