The Raid

This was hyped up to hell before I saw it, but it delivered in spades and truly felt like the best action movie I've seen in a long time. I loved the no-nonsense approach, keeping narrative and subplots lean and mean. One worry I had before watching the film was that it would just be a never ending stream of fights and get dull because of it, but I found the pacing spot on, with the actual brawls being broken up with some nicely tense moments and a minimal spattering of plot driving here and there. Speaking of spattering, the film is gloriously gory and violent too which makes a change to the 12A action we usually get these days or the godawful comic-book CGI blood in The Expendables (The Raid did enhance the gore with CGI, but actually pulled it off). Action is fast and intense, shot with style and pace without ever getting confusing or blurring the technique or brutality of the moves. Director Garth Evans sure knows how to shoot this stuff and it looks slick and stylish without ever going OTT with slow-mo or moving cameras. The only minor problem I had with the film was with the sound mix which I found a bit inconsistent and weedy at times, but that was more than likely just the cinema I was in not pumping it out loud enough. I did leave the film wanting more of it too, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I think it just means I'm desperate to buy it when it's released on Blu-Ray.