Proabably the most-anticipated action film of the year, Gareth Evan’s THE RAID 2 will begin cracking skulls, snapping bones, and letting the blood fly next month when the film hits theaters and today we have some hardcare images to help tide you over in the interim. Once again starring Iko Uwais as Rama, the film picks up almost immediately after the first one and gets down to the ol’ ultraviolence in no time flat. The film debuted at Sundance to rave reviews (read ours here) and has set the stage for what is sure to be an action-filled bonanza.
Here’s the pics:
Here’s the lengthy synopsis:
He thought it was over. After fighting his way out of a building filled with gangsters and madmen – a fight that left the bodies of police and gangsters alike piled in the halls – rookie Jakarta cop Rama thought it was done and he could resume a normal life. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
Formidable though they may have been, Rama’s opponents in that fateful building were nothing more than small fish swimming in a pond much larger than he ever dreamed possible. And his triumph over the small fry has attracted the attention of the predators farther up the food chain. His family at risk, Rama has only one choice to protect his infant son and wife: He must go undercover to enter the criminal underworld himself and climb through the hierarchy of competing forces until it leads him to the corrupt politicians and police pulling the strings at the top of the heap.
And so Rama begins a new odyssey of violence, a journey that will force him to set aside his own life and history and take on a new identity as the violent offender “Yuda.” In prison he must gain the confidence of Uco – the son of a prominent gang kingpin – to join the gang himself, laying his own life on the line in a desperate all-or-nothing gambit to bring the whole rotten enterprise to an end.
There was a considerable (and understandable) vitriolic reaction over the recently announced U.S. remake with THE EXPENDABLES 3 director Patrick Hughes at the helm, especially after THE RAID 2 has garnered such wide acclaim before even hitting mainstream theaters. It’s not exciting news to hear that a classic is being remade, especially so soon, although when films like THE DEPARTED, which was adapted from the foreign language pic INFERNAL AFFAIRS, win best picture and make big bucks at the box office, it’s easy to see why Hollywood would do it, even if we disagree. Personally, I’m just looking forward to reading some subtitles and watching the badassery that originates from Gareth Evans and that’s where my money will go.
THE RAID 2 hits theaters on March 28, 2014.