Best movie of this year hands down!

Beautiful, moving film.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Movie: The Raid Redemption (A): Action - Indonesian Positives:The film starts very well and soon after some time, the killer action takes the charge and goes on to entertain till the very last frame. The action scenes are extremely excellent and they were so well crafted that while watching the movie, I opened my mouth only to say "wow" at the best moves!The screenplay is very tight and the editing, razor sharp. It's not stretched at all and you won't even wish it to be shorter, especially if you're an action fan.Iko Uwais impresses big time and fits into the character of Rama. As soon as he comes into his action mode, claps and whistles are bound to make an appearance!The film has everything you would want a perfect action film to be.Plus, there isn't any vulgarity or obscenity as the focus is completely on the action and storytelling. Hats off to director Gareth Evans for that!Negatives:Nil.Repeat value: Absolutely!THE RAID REDEMPTION is undoubtedly the best martial arts action film ever. Actually, I had seen the sequel first and liked it a lot. But what makes this prequel better, despite of the sequel having some even better action sequences, is its complete devotion to action.

Indonesians Show The World That They Too Can Kick ArseAs a Malaysian, I am thoroughly in despair that my country will never be able to produce a film so beautifully raw as this. Malaysia has a censorship board that is ridiculously Orwellian; there should be no blood, no curse word, no crime - nothing to depict what the real world is. In short Malaysian Film Industry is a Feminist, Gynocentrist, Social Justice Warrior, Soyboy, cuckold excremental display. I am grateful that Indonesian film industry still have their testicles intact, and this film exhibits the raw unbridled potential of what South East Asian action movie are capable off. The action is bloody, well choreographed, well shot and totally convincing. Iko Uwais is a fantastic action star, his martial art is the real deal and you can really see it in his performance. The best scenes must be with his Karambit knife. Yayan Ruhian is also great as Mad Dog.Speaking of performances; I highly commend the director Gareth Evans for employing plain looking men for extras as well as using real locations for the shoot; it makes the film look wholly believable and immersive. Malay and Indonesian share a common root language and so, listening to the dialogue in it's native form has been enjoyable, because the acting all around is great, with every part big and small are played with urgency and intensity owing much to the language and how it is spoken. I recommend this film to anyone who loves action films.

A drug lord lives in a fortified apartment block. An elite squad of police infiltrate the building to arrest him. It does not go the way they wanted it to. That's the plot. There are a few more bells and whistles, including our main hero cop finding an unlikely ally in the building, but essentially this film is non-stop action. Extremely brutal and incredibly intricately staged incredible action. By distilling the crucial ingredients to their basic essence and working like hell to pull of some incredible fight choreography and insane stunt work, Gareth Evans has made the best action film of the last 20 years.

I remember back in 2012 when the 'Dredd' came out, and turned out to be absolutely fantastic, everyone was comparing it to 'The Raid: Redemption' both in similarities of story line and in quality. Ever since then I've been meaning to get around to seeing it (and its sequel) and finally managed to tonight. I would say I was impressed, but not blown away. The film is absolutely non-stop action from the word go. There is zero let up from start to finish - but is that a good thing? I felt like the film never slowed down enough to allow itself to have a soul. What I mean by that is films with incredible pacing like 'The Dark Knight' (if you ever need 2 and a half hours to feel like 15 minutes, that's the film to go with) still manage to take the time to be thought-provoking. Now, 'The Raid: Redemption' is far from mindless and has some twists and turns along the way, but it never made me actually go into a deeper level of thinking on anything. This is what hinders it from being up there with the truly great films.There's a lot of of fun to had with this movie nonetheless. Some of the fight sequences are quite astonishing. I don't think the claustrophobic feel of the building was up to the same standard that 'Dredd' managed to create it to, though perhaps that was simply because this building had windows? There's certainly a lot to like here, and while it's far from perfect, I very much look forward to seeing what they managed to achieve with a bigger budget in the sequel.