The Raid sees an Indonesian SWAT team launch an offensive on a fifteen storey apartment block with the express purpose of taking out the evil, drug running crime lord, Tama Riyadi, (played by Ray Sahetaphy), who is holed up on the top floor. Matters quickly become complicated as Tama becomes alerted to their presence by a sentinel when the team have only just made it 6 floors up. To make matters worse, it is at this point that the team learns their mission has not been officially sanctioned and thus they cannot call for reinforcements. A fight to the death ensues, criminals coming at the SWAT team with all manner of weapons.
If you enjoy action movies, this film is all you can ask for. A crazy roller coaster of breathtaking martial arts moves, pain, blood and, of course, death. It involves very little character exposition as Evans sets out to keep the audience captivated with 101 minutes of almost constant violence and mayhem. The martial arts choreography is quite simply fantastic, largely because of the fight scenes devised by Iko Uwais, who also plays the film’s protagonist Rama, and Yayan Ruhian, as experts in the Indonesian martial art of Pencak Silat. The barbarity of The Raid may put many off but if you enjoy witnessing demented bloodbaths you’ll love this movie.