If the original film, “The Raid: Redemption,” was a police raid/non-stop bloodbath in a Jakarta tenement building for 100 minutes, then “The Raid 2: Berandal,” takes the film to a logical conclusion: a relentless slaughter for 2.5 hours. Ok, there’s actually some plot: it’s a big crime epic, but the fight scenes are unremitting and extremely ambitious. And to some (including some of us; but not all of us) the movie is just too unrelenting in its fight scenes, but it’s undeniable that the scenes are dizzying and amazingly choreographed.
And to get a feeling for it all, several elements of the Gareth Evans’ directed film have surfaced online. MTV has released a bloody, NSFW clip, and a 30 minute DP30 interview with the director and star Iko Uwais has surfaced as well. Additionally, in case you’re wondering, it was recently announced that Patrick Hughes was signed to direct the English-language remake of “The Raid” and Evans is AOK with that.
“I think what worked for me was the fact that nobody questioned what I wanted to do on that, the same way I don’t think anyone should question what Patrick wants to do on that,” Evans told Crave. “For me, in order for that film to work really well, they’ve got to let him go off into his sandbox, play around and see what he comes up with. When they suggested Patrick, I had no problem at all because he’s a super talented director. [Hughes’] ‘Red Hill,’ fucking great film. Such a great movie.”
And note, you won’t be getting “The Raid 3” anytime soon. Director Gareth Evans says he’s going to wait a few years first before he goes back to this story. But ‘Berandal’ comes out March 28th. Check out the new clip and interview below.
