While the cinematography and choreography (by Uwais and Yayan Ruhian, who also has a role in the film) are the main draws here, Evans manages to inject some grim humor via the characters Hammer Girl (Julie Estelle) and Baseball Bat Man (Very Tri Ulisman), sibling assassins named for their favorite toys. Sure, he’s a cruel and ruthless criminal, but he’s oppressed by his impossible-to-please father Bangun (Tio Pakusodewo), Jakarta’s biggest criminal kingpin. On the other hand, Putra, as the main villain, manages the neat trick of enlisting at least a little of our empathy.
That said, it offers little other than a string of remarkable set-pieces - Uwais is an effective but limited actor and the cartoony script gives him little to do other than brood and flash his fists.
#The raid 2 english subs movie
The Raid 2 may be the chopsocky movie for people who think they don’t like martial arts movies - at the very least it’s the best representative of the genre since the original Raid. The effect is thrilling and makes almost every other recent action movie feel unimaginative and stale. Beginning with a dozen-against-one throwdown in a prison bathroom stall, progressing to a battle royale in a muddy prison courtyard and a remarkably precise face-off in a restaurant kitchen, Evans and his cinematographers Dimas Imam Subhono and Matt Flannery frame the mayhem with loving attention. This he does by subduing literally hundreds of would be assassins in increasingly inventive and remarkably athletic ways. The plot of this Indonesian actioner is pretty dispensable (I know for a fact that the film can be enjoyed by an English-speaking audience without the benefit of subtitles), but it basically picks up where the last movie ended, with the hero cop Rama (penkat silat champion Iko Uwais) going undercover in prison to win the confidence of Ucok (Arifin Putra), a mob boss’ son. Though this is a more ambitious film, it offers the same sort of kinetic pleasures and visceral jolts. If you saw Evans’ previous film then you know all you need to about whether this one is your cup of tea. While it may be reasonable to ask what our enjoyment of viciously violent movies says about us (and whether we might be harming our souls by watching them), it’s hard to imagine anyone being left unimpressed by the sheer ingenuity of Welsh director Gareth Evans’ The Raid 2, the inevitable sequel to his similarly beautiful, similarly savage but far lower budget 2011 film The Raid: Redemption.
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