The Raid [Movie]

[Blackjack]

Mad Dog was memorably menacing. While I'd normally complain about "hey what's his motivation?" I think here it works well enough that he Just Is. Why he has unending allegiance to the lead Warlord, maybe that's something the Hollywoodized version can get into a little just for the sake of maybe "filling in the story cracks."

What clicks with me in PR's favorite scene there is:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Maybe I'm making too much of nothing, but the fact he doesn't shoot the police sarge in the face seems to show he has some honor even if ultimately he just wants to beat the cop to death rather than blast him. Initially I thought "Oh here we go again, another 'why don't they just shoot the good guy' stupid bad guy moment." While I wasn't rooting for Mad Dog there, I kind of found it refreshing he won that particular battle.

I'll be interested to see the English version tries to revise this.

The remake of John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13" drastically revamped it so that instead of battling endless hordes of young gangsters (if you watch it today, it almost feels like you're watching a zombie movie), they have to battle hordes of corrupted police officers and SWAT team members. While I wouldn't expect them to revise an English-language version of The Raid that drastically, I suspect they'd make some tweaks. While I still prefer Carpenter's original (a couple sequences in The Raid remind me of Carpenter's film), I did appreciate that they tried to do something fresh with the basic concept.

I'm not sure the U.S. version of The Raid could realistically keep that martial arts style. Just not sure it would make sense in a U.S. setting as it does in Indonesia, though you could certainly have a cop specializing in that style I guess. But would you have some sort of crack house in the U.S. full of guys who know that martial arts style too? Hopefully at the least they'd avoid resorting to the "wire work" so often used in martial arts films here.

I recall Jet Li sounding dismayed in interviews that The Matrix and Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon ultimately made it so anyone could be a martial arts expert in a film via wirework and digitally painting the lines out later. The Raid didn't have the budget for any of that stuff, so it's pretty refreshing to just have it be all-out stunt work/choreography. 

[PR_GMR]

Yes, it's definetely going to be interesting to see how will the Hollywood incorporates the martial arts aspect. I thought the choreography in 'The Raid' was thrilling, but in the US, martial arts action isn't as big of a draw. If the remake doesn't have any martial arts, then that's just poorly played by Hollywood. It'll just be another forgettable action picture. Also, I've to agree with Jet Li's comment. It's just not thrilling to see CGI wire-fu. Live Martial arts choreography is just thrilling. Sadly, a fading cinematic aspect.

[Blackjack]

fwiw, according to Box Office Mojo, this has made about $582,000 or so in extremely limited (46 theaters as of its 2nd week in release) release in North America:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=raid.htm

I have no idea what its budget is but given the absence of digital FX (if it has any, it might be during some of the firearms/explosions sequences earlier in the film) and the zero-budget set design, it can't be much.  

[Blackjack]

Hey, this movie's quietly gone into FAR wider release, including many multiplexes:
http://www.sonyclassics.com/theraid/dates.html

So if you want to see what the fuss is about, or if you want to see it on a nice big screen instead of in a tiny art house theater, now's your chance. See it before they flush it out to make room for The Avengers. 

[Isgrimnur]

Saw this last night in an AMC multi in the Arlington, TX mall, which is no small venue.

It delivered what I was expecting: brutal martial arts work.  It even pieced together a decent narrative to hold the set pieces together. 

[PR_GMR]

Saw this last night in an AMC multi in the Arlington, TX mall, which is no small venue.

It delivered what I was expecting: brutal martial arts work.  It even pieced together a decent narrative to hold the set pieces together. 

Glad you enjoyed it, Isgri! 

The movie has so far taken in a respectable 3.5 mil on a modest release. That's fantastic for a foreign film of its type these days.

[Blackjack]

Too weird and funny   Even though it's claymation, it's decidedly NSFW

See THE RAID Remade in Claymation with Cats
http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/5/11/see-the-raid-remade-in-claymation-with-cats.html
-Although it's hysterical, and only 3mins long, it sort of has spoilers. But if you saw that movie, you'll be surprised how much mirrors it.  

[Blackjack]

Time flies! This rolls out on DVD and BluRay on Tuesday, Aug. 14. The movie's so violent, the idea of an "unrated" version makes me laugh, but it is billed as such.

THE RAID: REDEMPTION to Be Released Unrated on Blu-ray and DVD
http://collider.com/the-raid-redemption-unrated-dvd-blu-ray/178700/

Here are the special features:

    Commentary with Writer/Director Gareth Evans
    6 Gareth Evans Behind-the-Scenes video blogs
    “Behind The Music with Mike Shinoda and Joe Trapanese” Featurette
    “Inside the Score” trailer teaser for Mike Shinoda’s first feature score
    “An Evening with Gareth Evans, Mike Shinoda and Joe Trapanese” Featurette
    “An Anatomy of a Scene” Featurette
    4 “In Conversation with Gareth Evans and Mike Shinoda” Featurettes
    “THE RAID TV Show Ad (circa 1994)”
    “Claycat’s The Raid” Featurette
    English Dub

Nowadays, they usually shove all this stuff onto the BluRay and put one featurette maybe on the DVD. The press release on this suggests both versions will have all this bonus stuff so I hope that's the case.

While I suspect the English Dub version will be terrible, if you don't like subtitles, there's that.

Gareth Evans is supposedly executive-producing the U.S. remake of this, but I don't get the impression he is actively involved with it (it seems more a courtesy title).

[CeeKay]

saw this tonight on blu ray.   great action flick, didn't notice any issues with the English dub 

[hepcat]

saw this tonight on blu ray.   great action flick, didn't notice any issues with the English dub 

Oddly enough, the dubbed dialog for The Raid was taken in whole from a bootleg copy of Cannonball Run.  I'm surprised you didn't notice that mix up.

[CeeKay]

saw this tonight on blu ray.   great action flick, didn't notice any issues with the English dub 

Oddly enough, the dubbed dialog for The Raid was taken in whole from a bootleg copy of Cannonball Run.  I'm surprised you didn't notice that mix up.

I was wondering why random Asian people were sounding like Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise.  I just assumed they all had SARS.

[hepcat]

But the bloopers during the credits really made it pop, didn't it?