 I somehow overlooked the raid films when they hit theaters, but thankfully my awesome movie feuds community pointed out my fatal flaw. So without further ado, it's the raid redemption versus the raid 2 on movie feuds. Let's fight! I'm going to tell you right off the bat that I'm going to butcher every single last one of these actors' names. Not out of disrespect, but simply because I lack culture and simple reading comprehension. With that said, let's get started with some of the key players. The main star is Rama, played by martial arts champion Iko Awais, Awais, Awas, I told you I was going to do this. He's a very calm and collected individual who manages to think fast when in a tough spot. I mean, it usually ends up with him beating the living shit out of everything in the room, but it's not a bad strategy considering the predicament he's in. Whee! What a predicament! It's a face-off reference for the two of you that got that. Donnie Almai don't know how to say her last name, plays Rama's misguided brother Andy, who is one of Rama's right-hand men. Rama's a powerful drug slash landlord, except for he lends himself to a gun more than his fist to get the job done. And if he doesn't have any bullets, he'll go with a hammer. Even if he has bullets sometimes, just to be a dick. Then there's Thomas' other hired hands, simply known as Mad Dog. This guy's a f***ing nightmare, and he can take one hell of a beating. There's a point towards the end when he gets a light jab through the side of his neck. He just keeps going, fighting two guys at once. He doesn't even pull the thing out, he doesn't even care. In another scene, he goes one-on-one with actor Joe Taslim's character, Jaka, who unfortunately does not end up walking out of that bout. Jaka? Jaka? I'm trying, okay? Just not very hard. What's interesting is that a lot of these guys carry over into the second installment with Mad Dog playing a down-on-his-luck hitman of sorts, and Jaka or Jaka taking the reins of the badass fighter this time. The second installment has a few more Looney characters, including a hammer-wielding super bitch and a baseball player in training. Maybe if I just slur the names really fast, you won't know that I'm screwing them up. Eryph and Butra plays Ukko, it's a first-time role for this actor, and he's great. He plays the spoiled son of a bitch, son of Bangun, a high-level boss who looks over his people and maintains peace with the other factions. What I found particularly interesting is how Andy, one of the few to survive the first raid, is taken out within the first five minutes of the sequel. It doesn't even get to throw a punch. That's a testament to the script, I think, which let's get into now. The Raid, redemption, plays out like a great video game complete with the absurd subtitle. I wasn't actually sure why the subtitle was there to begin with, I was confused going in. I thought this was the raid too, because it had that tagline, had to look it up. Turns out old Sony couldn't secure the rights to just the raid, how it was originally titled, so they had to add that dumbass subtitle at the end. Well done. Well done. As I was saying though, the first film is very much in line with the classic beat-em-up side-scrollers. Our heroes get sent on a mission to raid an old hotel with very little information to go off of. They're vastly outnumbered and have no real idea what awaits them inside. Each level gets substantially harder for our hero, and it's complete with a mid-boss fight. These are levels. The plot is almost non-existent, and it works wonderfully. We get just enough information to keep us hooked for the next set piece. There are a couple of twists towards the end, but there didn't need to be. The action and wonderful cinematography were enough to keep me invested. The raid too gets rid of the dumb subheading and goes entirely the opposite direction. Here we get a very thought-out and rather methodical script. We still get our boss battle and even a heavier dose of action, but it's constructed around a pretty cool story. I love how Rama has to now deal with the consequences of surviving the first raid. Has to put himself into prison thanks to some shadow organization, just to keep his family safe. It's very face-off of him. That's the second face-off reference. Watching him stuck between a gang rivalry and single-handedly taking down an entire faction was a wild ride. There was much more variety too, and we'll touch upon that in round three. Coming up now. Yeah. The bread and butter of these movies is action. That's what we're here for, and the original raid blew me away by the creative camera angles that almost feel like they're part of the fight. Falling with baddies as they get kicked across the room and giving a sense of momentum when our protagonist is in full swing. Gun battles that rip apart entire rooms, explosive fridges, sniper attacks, and brilliant choreography during one-on-one and even one-on-two fights. The sequel doubles down here, and it even expands to a wider range of locales and more creative ways to fight. There are multiple prison riots, with the latter being a very aggressive round of mud-wrestling, complete with throat slits. My favorite. Love them. Then there's the amazing club brawl, a sweet car chase with inside and outside chaos taking place. We get another one-on-two with Rama going up against the hammer sister and a bad boy. Not quite as exciting as the first films two-on-one, but it makes up for it right afterwards with an almost ten-minute final fight that doesn't let up. The cinematography is handled very well too, with dramatic shots both up close and from a distance to complement the on-screen performances. Joseph Trapinez and co-vocalist of Linkin Park, Mike Shinoba composed over 50 minutes of music for this bad boy, almost entirely instrumental, outside of one or two songs. The big single Reazer's Out sounds like something lifted right off the pages of a Linkin Park track list. The entire score is very much in line with Park's sound, which works perfectly for this style of film. Trapinez is back for the sequel, but no mic this time, sits this one out, although the music does sound awfully familiar. I'm particularly fond of the composition The Showdown. It's a number that has a never-ending build-up. The music is intense and it has kind of a Call of Duty Modern Warfare sound at times. It's got a hint to that industrial sound, and it's an overall win for me in both films. I'm excited to see what number three brings us. Bottom line is I f***ed up by ignoring these films, but thanks to you guys I've been corrected. And I'm gonna be first in line to see that third film when it comes out. It's kind of a sidequel, I guess, takes place during the second one, so that'll be interesting. Perhaps we'll get to see his brother now this time around, and not just his head getting blown off. It saddens me how little R-rated action films we have nowadays. All this cookie-cutter PG-13 shit is really starting to get depressing. I'm glad we still have gems like The Raid every once in a while to show us just how to make an action movie. Take note, expendables, you're doing it wrong. More than just reviews, this is Movie Feuds. Oh yeah, comment and like and subscribe and give me some money on Patreon so I keep doing this stupid thing. I'm out.