Director: Gareth Evans
Writer: Gareth Evans
Stars: Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, Arifin Putra
Can you imagine a movie co-directed by Martin Scorcese, Akira
Kurosawa and Bruce Lee? If so the end product might, just might match the
staggering achievement of Gareth Evans’ The Departed meets Ran meets Enter The
Dragon epic crime roller coaster.
Where the startling 2011 predecessor at 90 minutes was a
quick dash down the road to pick up some munchies from a 24 hour garage, The
Raid 2 by comparison is a Sunday afternoon drive which plots its course
combining the slowly winding a – roads and blasting down motorways at high
speed. The Joy of this sequel is in its stunning sense of spectacle and less is
more approach, the action is just as creatively brutal, the martial arts on
display just as savagely graceful, yet each action sequences has something
unique and memorable to that of the next.
The narrative is a mesh of revenge thriller with undercover
cop conventions and mechanics, Rama (Iko Uwais) our hero from The Raid is
coerced into infiltrating the Jakartan underworld via some initial jail time.
Rama then haplessly falls into the cross fire of a 3 way gang war and is left
to kick and flick his way to survival whilst attempting not to blow his cover.9/10
