The Raid - Iko Uwais

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "The Raid: Redemption" or "Serbuan maut" or "Deadly Invasion")

directed by Gareth Evans
Indonesia/USA 2011

A derelict apartment complex in Jakarta is the impenetrable fortress of underworld crime boss Tama Riyadi (Ray Sahetapy). Besides an on-site drub lab, the apartment building also offers accommodation and protection to several of the city's most ferocious criminals. Tama's fortress has been a no-go zone for the police, but tonight Sergeant Jaka (Joe Taslim, THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS 6) is leading a twenty-man SWAT team - among them rookie Rama (fight choreographer Iko Uwais) who has personal reasons for participating in the mission - into the building under the direction of aging Lieutenant Wahyu (Pierre Gruno). The plan is to secure each floor and silence any lookouts on the way up to Tama's penthouse apartment; however, things quickly go south and the SWAT team quickly find themselves under attack from all sides with the "neighbors" re-securing each floor on the way up and the building's residents hacking their way down with machetes under the supervision of "brains" Andi (Donny Alamsyah, RED AND WHITE) and Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian, the film's other fight choreographer) who prefers hand-to-hand combat and is lethally efficient.

Back-breakingly violent yet too cartoonish to offend, THE RAID (released stateside as THE RAID: REDEMPTION) is a fairly brainless action flick; none of the predictable subplots or plot twists really matter and the film knows that its strength is in the relentless succession of kinetically-staged action set-pieces. The effect is sort of like THE HORDE with relentless machete-wielding criminals rather than zombies (a pretty apt comparison considering how hard is to get any fighter on either side to stay down). The exposition is quickly dealt with in the first few minutes and the first lurching passages of Linkin Park musician Mike Shinoda and TRON: LEGACY composer Joe Trapanese's score signifies the real start of the film. The "raid" on the drug lab and Mad Dog's dogfights are the stand-out setpieces, but there's nary a lull.

Eric Cotenas

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Theatrical Release: 13 April 2012 (USA)

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DVD Review: Momentum Pictures - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Momentum Pictures Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	1:36:45 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	1.80:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: ~6.1 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	Indonesian/Bahasa Dolby Digital 5.1; English Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles	English (for Indonesian track), English HoH (for dub track), none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Momentum Pictures Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.80:1 Edition Details: • Audio Commentary by writer/director/editor Gareth Evans and actor Joe Taslim • Descriptive Video Service track (Dolby Digital 2.0) • Behind the Music with Mike Shinoda and Joe Trapanese (16:9; 10:37) • THE RAID Fan Film (4:3; 0:41) • Claycat's THE RAID (16:9; 2:45) • Four Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes with Gareth Evans and compser Mike Shinoda (16:9; 10:58) • THE RAID soundtrack promo (16:9; 1:17) • THE RAID Trailer 1 (16:9; 1:31) • THE RAID Trailer 2 (16:9; 1:28) • Trailers for SLEEPING DOGS and WARFIGHTERS • Start-up trailers for SAFE and RED TAILS DVD Release Date: September 24th, 2012 Amaray Chapters 12

Comments

Momentum's dual-layer, anamorphic DVD features the US version, which is identical in content to the Indonesian original but features a new score by Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda and Joe Trapanese on both the Indonesian and English Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks (this new score was featured even on the Indonesian wide theatrical release, although a version with the original score by Aria Prayogi and Fajar Yuskema received limited screenings). Both the UK and US DVD editions feature the rescored version while their Blu-Ray editions also feature a second encoding with the original score as a format exclusive. Strangely, the English subtitles (for the Indonesian track) and the HoH subtitles (for the dub track) have different fonts.

While the US DVD features a commentary by writer/editor/director Gareth Evans, the Momentum DVD features a UK-exclusive track with Evans and actor Joe Taslim. A brief fan film presents a segment from the film in animation, and Claycat's THE RAID features a claymation distillation of the film. The featurettes which feature Evans and Shinoda discussing aspects of the production with each other are occasionally interesting (particularly in detailing how one back-breaking stunt was achieved by digitally stitching three camera passes together). Two trailers for the feature are also included, along with trailers for SLEEPING DOGS and WARFIGHTERS (the disc also opens with start-up trailers for SAFE and RED TAILS).

- Eric Cotenas

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