THE RAID: REDEMPTION (2011)

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A masterclass in action entirely in Indonesian brought to you by a Welshman, Gareth Huw Evans, who would have thunk it?

With Raid 2 out now, it was time to revisit this incredible film from a few years ago, and boy did it deliver the second time round.

Iko Uwais is Rama, an Indonesian cop whose team is on a mission to take down the head of a massive criminal empire in a tenement block.
That’s pretty much the premise. What’s brilliant about it, apart from the incredible fight choreography is the fact that Evans manages to make you care and involves you in the characters, especially Rama. The brief scenes with his wife allow you to feel that he has something worth living for and so the stakes become higher.

There is a nice early nod to The Warriors when the head baddie, is talking to his tenants on a microphone bringing to mind the female radio DJ playing Nowhere to Run.

The colours/hues of the film really bring to the fore the darkness and soullessness that exists in the building. It could be set anytime; now or in some sci-fi dystopia. The music is frenetic and complimentary to each scene. Uwais is a powerhouse, it has been a while since someone like him has been on the big screen, he can act, is handsome and he definitely can fight, of that there is no doubt. A movie star with talent.

The story unfolds like a computer game, getting to the next level, fighting bosses etc etc, but it never feels forced or unenjoyable. The composition is spot on, the frenetic, visceral fights tempered by the tension of waiting for the right moment. This is the film’s greatest strength, the notes fit together to make a perfect symphony of violence and at the same time engage the audience and entertain them with intelligence.

Evans knows what he’s doing.
This is the second film that Evans/Uwais have collaborated on, the first being Merantau.
Special mention goes to the co-fight choreographer and stand out performance in the film, Yayan Ruhian playing the unstoppable Mad Dog. That guy likes to fight and makes for the most worthy of adversaries.

The comparisons to Dredd, which was released the same year, are not unfair, they share a very similar premise, basically the plot of a number of computer games, work your way up to the final boss while fighting your way through increasingly harder to beat foes.
Simple yet, in both films, very effective.

If you haven’t seen it yet and you are not that squeamish, check it.

4/5

BUY ON BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE

MARGIN CALL (2011)

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Written and directed by J.C. Chandor this tautly wound script and story-telling style brings to mind a great play. Mostly due to the workman-like office settings, this enables Chandor and his merry bunch of talented actors to unfurl the story in a way unusual to film. That’s not to say it hasn’t been done before and brilliantly (12 Angry Men, Glengarry Glenross, All the President’s Men) but it’s rarely done well and often enough.

The realistic, theatrical approach allows the protagonists of the piece, yet antagonists of the well-being of capitalist society, to be shown as humans, not merely some callous rogues that will probably end up dead or in jail.

This is a film about capitalism, greed and how far it can be taken. Loosely based on the American financial crisis of 2008/9 it draws on, without being specific, the world of Goldman Sachs, the Lehmann Brothers and Bear Stearns. Using an un-named Wall Street investment company allows investigation of an event that was probably a long time coming. It manages to keep the stakes high and feel like this is how it could have probably went down.

Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) gets fired from a big investment firm as part of a major culling. The project he was working on before he was ejected from the building has implications too huge for the immediate bosses to see. He hands over a USB to one of his underlings, Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), who stays behind to work on it, discovering information that requires him to call his boss late at night with the not so great news. And so the wheel begins to turn on an event that will have far-reaching effects on many, many lives.

Jeremy Irons (John Tuld) reminds us of how great an actor he is playing the head of the un-named company and Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey) has the moral dilemma at the forefront of his day/night and plays it brilliantly. Paul Bettany is very believable as a Londoner working with the big boys on Wall Street and Penn Badgely plays Zachary Quinto’s junior work mate well, as always.
Thoroughly well supported by Simon Baker, Demi Moore, Mary McDonnell and Aasif Mandvi, all the actors here realise they are getting a chance to really act…on film. Clever dialogue, no histrionics, just great story-telling makes this an important film that deserves to be seen.

Margin Call was J.C.Chandor’s first film, as a director and writer on it he shows that he is a director to watch out for. A mark has been made.

Now do I really have to watch All is Lost?

4/5

BUY ON BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE