The Raid: Redemption
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: March 23, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
3
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireSimon CrookMay 14, 2012
Remember your first time with Hard Boiled? Die Hard? This is how it's done - a clean, hard, constant hit of adrenalin. If it's not the best action movie of the year, we'll eat a fridge. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 24, 2012
Once the action starts - and it starts very quickly - The Raid is relentless, breathtaking in its sheer propulsive majesty. But it's also shot through with moments of bleak poetry amid the carnage. Read full review
100
Time OutDavid FearMar 20, 2012
There are moments when The Raid: Redemption doesn't feel like an action movie so much as pure action itself, delivered in strong, undiluted doses and with the sort of creative one-upmanship capable of rejuvenating a stale, seen-it-all genre. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn LevyMar 29, 2012
This is the sort of film for which the phrase 'movie-movie' was coined -- and coined as a term of highest praise. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorAndy KleinMar 24, 2012
Extraordinary stunt and fight work and nonstop excitement, but a warning to those who are at all squeamish: this may be the most violent movie I've ever seen. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMar 21, 2012
American action movies are almost entirely defined by cutaways, blaring music cues and grunts. The Raid: Redemption, a hyper-energetic Indonesian martial arts movie, delivers an effective rebuke to that meek norm. Bones break, blood flows and swift, excessively complicated fight choreography puts virtually everything released in North America since "The Bourne Ultimatum" to instant shame. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinMar 22, 2012
It's exhausting, exhilarating, riveting stuff that fans of high-octane filmmaking should not miss. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirMar 22, 2012
It offers some of the best Asian martial-arts choreography of recent years and an electric, claustrophobic puzzle-palace atmosphere that'll leave you wrung out and buzzed. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 29, 2012
Poised at the midway point between an ultraviolent video game and a neo-classic dance musical. As midnight-movie mash-ups go, it's pretty amazing. Read full review
88
USA TodayScott BowlesMar 22, 2012
Unapologetically brutal and unencumbered by much plot, Raid is the year's most turbo-charged film. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallApr 11, 2012
Remember that ultra-violent scene in "Old Boy" when the dude plowed through a subway platform of bad guys and was the only one left standing? Multiply it by four or five and that's The Raid: Redemption. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayMar 21, 2012
Gareth Evans' Indonesian martial-arts throwback The Raid: Redemption has a look and feel that resembles the best of '80s cult action movies: half John Carpenter, half John Woo. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineNick SchagerMar 27, 2012
An orgiastic barrage of violence, The Raid: Redemption is, at least in its finest moments, one of the most breathless, blistering action movies in recent memory. Read full review
80
NPRMark JenkinsMar 23, 2012
Arguably the most dynamic Asian action film since the 1990s peaks of John Woo and Tsui Hark, The Raid: Redemption works as sheer gladiatorial ballet. Read full review
80
Village VoiceErnest HardyMar 20, 2012
Lean, fast-moving, and filled with game-changing fight sequences that have a brutally beautiful (or beautifully brutal) quality, Gareth Evans's Indonesian martial-arts film The Raid: Redemption lives up to its viral hype. Read full review
80
VarietyRobert KoehlerFeb 28, 2012
Taking the genre to a higher level of intensity, the Welsh-born Evans continues what he started in previous Indonesia-set actioner "Merantau," but this picture will seal his cult status. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 8, 2012
When it comes to The Raid: Redemption, there are no pretentions. Pure and simple, this is about violence. As we used to say, "kickin' ass and takin' names." Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMar 23, 2012
Plot, characterization and dialogue are merely the frame here for the real goods, an immersion into the Indonesian martial arts form known as silat. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickMar 23, 2012
The action is brutal, bloody and virtually nonstop in this adrenaline-packed riff on "Assault on Precinct 13.'' Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisMar 22, 2012
Iko Uwais is not exactly a household name, but the Indonesian heartthrob appears to be well on his way with The Raid: Redemption, a clever, action-packed film that showcases his movie-star looks, low-key charisma and breathtaking martial arts skills. Read full review
75
MovielineAlison WillmoreMar 22, 2012
There's a sliver of a plot to The Raid, but it's really not worth going over -- when the characters pause to talk, which is rare, it does tend to kill the film's momentum. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 11, 2012
If you like martial-arts films, it's well worth your while, a non-stop orgy of brilliantly choreographed fight scenes. Eventually it's all too much, a blur of fists, blades and snapped bones that run together. Still, it's a wild ride. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMar 21, 2012
I do wish that Evans were a better storyteller. When he isn't turning mad-dog violence into visual rock & roll, The Raid shreds narrative coherence to ribbons. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 13, 2012
Built on shaky and blood-soaked ground, but if towering technique is all you want from an action movie, then yippee-ki-yay. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 22, 2012
The Raid is maniacal in its pacing and assault tactics. It's also, absurdly, rated R. Fantastic. I love that a film this gory secured the same Motion Picture Association of America rating as "The King's Speech." Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyMar 17, 2012
This mostly no-nonsense, floor-by-floor ass-kicking panorama is admirably humble. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 14, 2012
This is a movie to be experienced on a more visceral level. As long as you don't expect anything more, you won't be disappointed. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMar 22, 2012
The special effects here are wiry martial artists grunting their way through fight after fight. It's exhausting but exhilarating. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMar 28, 2012
The Raid: Redemption definitely delivers everything that international action fans want. The question I have is whether the laws of supply and demand are adequate tools for evaluating a movie's worth. Read full review
30
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 22, 2012
The mousetrap setup and tight fight spaces, the bad blood and cruel deaths - soon makes the movie grindingly monotonous, a blur of thudding body blows. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMar 21, 2012
This film is about violence. All violence. Wall-to-wall violence. Against many of those walls, heads are pounded again and again into a pulpy mass. If I estimated the film has 10 minutes of dialogue, that would be generous. Read full review
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