The Raid 2 (4½ Stars)

Normally I sigh when I see posters like the one above. Claims like "The greatest action film ever" are usually a ploy to lure people into watching a third rate movie. But in this case it could be true. The action scenes are spectacular, and they take place from beginning to end, with hardly a pause for the viewer to catch his breath.

I haven't seen the first film, yet. As soon as I watched this film in the cinema I ordered "The Raid" on Blu-ray, that's how much I liked it. I've been told that the second film features some of the actors from the first film, but the plots are unrelated enough to make it possible to watch the second film first. The background story isn't important enough to be indispensable knowledge.

Rama is a young police officer in Indonesia. His superior wants him to go underground in a criminal gang with the intention of finding proof that there are corrupt police officers who assist the gangs, To do this Rama assaults the son of a rich businessman and lets himself be arrested, so that he can become friends with the already imprisoned Uco, the son of a gang leader called Bangun. Two years later Rama is released from prison and is invited to join Bangun's gang. At this point Rama seems to be distancing himself from his role as a policeman. He is loyal to Bangun as his boss and Uco as his friend, and he becomes torn when Uco plans a rebellion against his father.

The plot is complex. There are three gangs, not including corrupt police officers, and at times it's difficult to understand who's fighting who. I'm sure that will be cleared up when I watch the film again. But the fighting is amazing. It's mostly unarmed combat, the Indonesian martial arts style referred to as "Pencak Silat", but there are also guns and weapons such as baseball bats and hammers. To me the fighting style is reminiscent of Wing Chun, depending on close contact and short punches. In a way the battles are realistic, not as idealised as in modern Chinese films, but they are over the top in their extent. For instance, in one scene there is a car chase while Rama is on the back seat of a car fighting with three men in the car around him, one on either side and the third on the front seat. This fight at close quarters was so amazing, especially because the car was being rammed by other cars in the chase. I believe this is the first time a car chase and a martial arts battle inside a car have ever been combined.

Is it the greatest action film ever? Maybe. At the moment I can't think of a more explosive action film.