THE RAID 2 MOVIE
THE RAID 2 SERIES

His family at risk, Rama has only one choice to protect his infant son and wife: He must go undercover to enter the criminal underworld himself and climb through the hierarchy of competing forces until it leads him to the corrupt politicians and police pulling the strings at the top of the heap. And his triumph over the small fry has attracted the attention of the predators farther up the food chain. Formidable though they may have been, Rama’s opponents in that fateful building were nothing more than small fish swimming in a pond much larger than he ever dreamed possible. After fighting his way out of a building filled with gangsters and madmen – a fight that left the bodies of police and gangsters alike piled in the halls – rookie Jakarta cop Rama thought it was done and he could resume a normal life. It’s just a shame that the script wasn’t tightened up a little to do away with some of the more pointless characters and extraneous sub-plots to make part two as lithe and fat-free as its predecessor.He thought it was over.

THE RAID 2 MOVIE

This movie picks up for the character a very short time after the final scene of the first one. And discovering a few things about police corruption as well. And it looks great, with some sequences neon-lit nightmares, and others slow-motion masterpieces of bone-crunching brutality. An action/thriller/martial arts movie, which is a sequel to 'The Raid.' That film was all about rookie Indonesian cop Rama trying to survive when a raid on an apartment block went wrong. The Raid 2 (3,582) 7.9 2 h X-Ray R A Jakarta cop goes undercover to take down a network of powerful organized crime syndicates. Special mention should also go to Arifin Putra whose snivelling Ucok is the film’s most interesting character. Uwais is yet again fantastic in the lead, all snarling determination as he batters villain after villain. But best of the bunch is a lengthy kitchen brawl that finds our hero going one-on-one with a villainous equal, a scene in which we get up close-and-personal with Rama’s fists of fury as he brutally and mercilessly takes down his man. Stand-outs include the aforementioned bathroom and prison yard scenes, but also a brilliantly choreographed chase sequence that features Rama fighting four assailants in a tiny car. And if anything, Evans has got better at shooting these scenes, the writer-director brilliantly building tension in the build-up to each battle before delivering some truly jaw-dropping sequences. And the film really comes to life whenever they are onscreen.

THE RAID 2 SERIES

Conversely two fantastic additions to the series are Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man, characters who have little in the way of back-story or explanation, but who simply show up to cause maximum bloody carnage. So while its nice to see someone like Yayan Ruhian – so memorable as Mad Dog in the first film – returning to play an entirely new character, it does feel like he’s strolled in from an entirely different movie, and while his fight scenes are great, his story arc only really serves to slow proceedings down. And several more characters show up to complicate proceedings with their various plots and schemes. The ruthless Bejo also has designs on that lofty position of power. The angry and petulant Ucok endeavors to oust his father to take over the family buisness. A war between Bangun’s family and their rivals the Goto clan is reignited. And it’s here that the story becomes a little too convoluted for its own good. He proves his worth during a tense bathroom stand-off, and a stunning fight sequence in the prison yard, and while it takes him months rather than weeks to complete his mission, he’s eventually out and rising up the ranks in Bangun’s organization. Using bare minimum, writer/director Gareth Evans scrapped together a sick single-setting action/horror thrill ride, complete with camera tricks and martial arts choreography that hadn't really been seen before living in that shadow, The Raid 2 would have to do. Rama first heads to prison where his mission is to befriend Ucock, son of the local crime lord Bangun. The Raid: Redemption was nothing short of a new milestone for the action genre (read my 5-Star review - Spoilers: I liked it). What follows is not unlike the Infernal Affairs films, albeit with a brutal action twist. And while our hero is initially hesitant to to agree, the realisation that it's the only way to protect his family quickly makes the decision an easy one. Wanting to clean the streets of both bad guys and dirty cops, his bosses claim that the only way Rama can continue the work he’s started is by going undercover. And he quickly discovers that the many men he murdered were merely the tip of the criminal iceberg in Jakarta. It starts off briskly enough, opening mere moments after the end of the first film, with Rama being de-briefed by senior officers about want went on in the building.

The raid 2