Rising From The Blog

I’m always amused by people who decide go to the movies without doing any research into what they are about to see. I’m not talking about people who show up, have a rough idea of what is playing, and must choose between two or three different things that are starting around the same time.

I’m talking about the people who show up to the theater with absolutely no clue about anything that is currently playing and start doing Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe with their choice in entertainment. Sure, you might be pleasantly surprised by what you stumble upon, but I find that this approach can only lead to disappointment and frustration.

I bring this up due to a recent visit to the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge, MA. Established in 1995, the Kendall caters to indie film fans with quirky dramas and comedies, foreign films, and hot button documentaries. However, the theater will also occasionally show some love to fans of sci-fi, action, and horror. This is the theater that got first dibs on “The Blair Witch Project,” “Bubba Ho-tep,” and “Black Swan,” which means their selection of films can be quite diverse.

So, while checking out “The Raid: Redemption” at the Kendall last Saturday afternoon, I thought it was interesting to see these two women in their early twenties a couple of rows down from me. Not to generalize, but you don’t usually see too many women attending Indonesian action movies. But, hey, maybe they also have eclectic tastes in movies. Surely they didn’t buy tickets to the first thing that was about to start? That would be silly.

They left their seats the second the movie got violent.

That was about five minutes into the picture.

I won’t reveal what moment caused them to bolt, but it sets up the villain rather well, and it allows the audience to know right away that “The Raid: Redemption” is one action movie that doesn’t play nice.

The basic set up to “The Raid: Redemption” is quite straight forward. Evil crime lord runs his empire from a slum apartment building. SWAT team arrives at said building to arrest the evil crime lord. SWAT team is discovered. Evil crime lord has the building locked down. Evil crime lord then offers lifetime sanctuary to anyone in the building who takes out a member of the SWAT team.

Insanity immediately ensues.

Before the end credits roll, people are punched, kicked, stabbed, shot, blown up, impaled, and left with some serious boo-boos. You can go ahead and thank Gareth Evans for bringing all this mayhem to the screen. As the writer, director, and editor of “The Raid,” Evans makes his scenes play out with an intensity that recalls the early works of John McTiernan, Walter Hill, and John Carpenter.

Unlike the two ladies who left to get a refund, I was pleased by “The Raid,” and I guess I’m not the only one who enjoyed it. There is already talk of Evans making two more installments in this series, and Screen Gems has purchased the rights to do a remake for American audiences. But before all that happens, do yourself a favor and seek out the original first. If testosterone runs through your body, odds are you will have a blast watching “The Raid.”