Toronto Review: ‘The Raid’ – One of the Best Action Movies in Years!1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteHoly shit I haven’t seen an action movie this good in years! I felt that way only 30 minutes in, but after the full 100 minutes, I still felt the same and had to exclaim that here, right upfront, because it deserves that much praise.
I saw the Indonesian film The Raid at the Toronto Film Fest, it’s the opening night Midnight Madness film, and it’s crazy, with insanely awesome action non-stop throughout.
Written and directed by Gareth Evans, the film takes place entirely in one big drug lord-controlled building, where the police raid is occurring, but things don’t turn out as planned and the tides are completely turned just halfway through.
I walked into The Raid knowing nothing about it. The film quickly introduces us to Jaka (Joe Taslim), one member of a 20-man police squad in Jakarta, Indonesia that decides to raid a building run a ruthless drug lord named Tama.
The first half opens with the SWAT team raiding the building in full tactical gear and it has better action choreography than most Hollywood films. If you need to brush up on your Counter-Strike or Call of Duty tactics, this is the “training video” to watch, as their technique should help any gamer hone their skills as it’s near perfect, and perfectly captured on film, which is amazing.
