Hello guys and ghouls and welcome to another addition to the Filmania catalogue of “movies you should watch right now otherwise I’ll hate you forever.” On this beautiful fall Sunday I finally decided to sit down for 150 minutes and watch “The Raid 2: Berandal”. I was a major fan of the first go around ,“The Raid: Redemption”, so it was blatantly obvious that I’d love the shit out of the second one. And as always, I was right. Something my girlfriend is slowly starting to understand…

But before I jump into the awesomeness that is “The Raid 2”, let me just glaze over the first one so you can get an idea of the over arching plot that lays out the ground work for this amazing series. “Redemption” takes place primarily in a run down apartment complex, a project if you will, that is ran by a mob boss and is full of criminals, drug addicts and any other scum you can find. It’s best to think of this movie as a video game, with each floor being a game level that our protagonists have to pass through before getting to the final boss. The final boss being an unstoppable fucking force of a human that knows how to kick your ass two ways from Sunday. But essentially the story revolves around police corruption and the one “do gooder” cop who cannot be swayed by the disgusting world he lives in.

This cop, played by Iko Uwais, is a fucking badass. He is on my list of “Real Action Stars Who Could Destroy Mainstream Action Stars.”

The action is relentless but the overarching plot comes second in this story due to the fact that the set pieces are purely set up to be dominated by high flying kicks and breaking bones.

“Berandal” comes right off the heels of “Redemption” in that Rama, Iko’s character, is called into action (undercover type action…bitches) by a small task force built to bring down all the corruption. What “Redemption” lacked in plot is made up for in this film. There is a lot drama, if you will, to fill out a more robust story that involves crime family turmoil and new relationships formed. That is the one difference that really sets it apart from the first one.

The second difference/improvement, which I don’t know how you could improve upon it, is that the action is 100x more insane and expertly choreographed. I can’t even express to you how absolutely blown away I was by the level of professionalism that was on display. There is one scene in particular (involves a mute assassin whose main weapon is two hammers and another assassin who uses a bat…they both die terribly) that had me running around the house screaming at the top of my lungs while simultaneously applauding the extreme violence. No people I’m not a sociopath, I’m just impressed by the level of awesomeness that Gareth Evans, the director, is working on here.

Ranting time! I think it is absolute bullshit that this movie didn’t get a wide release. This is one of the BEST action films in the past decade but shit like “The Expendables 3” gets all the marketing dollars and major studio attention. Somehow Stallone and Arnold get their fat ass corpses resurrected from their 1990’s action movie graves while legit action stars like Scott Adkins are left in “Straight to Video” purgatory. Adkins and Uwais would destroy Statham and the rest of the bankable “actors” that are currently taking over mainstream action films. To be honest though, I love Jason Statham because he is the tits. But Adkins would just man handle him. Not even a question.

And being that this is the world we live in, “The Raid” is being remade for American audiences (because Americans can’t handle subtitles) and will star Frank Grillo. Much like Statham, I love Grillo to death. He was the only redeeming factor in the latest “The Purge” entry and he knows how to lay on the drama in such films like “The Grey” and “Disconnect”. He deserves to be a legit star. But let me just say right now that the remake will fail miserably in comparison to the original. Unless they go for a hard R as opposed to a “ticket selling” PG-13 rating, then this movie will not be good.

Essentially, “Berandal” is a masterpiece. I never wanted the action to stop because it was just too damn good. The acting/drama was on point and wasn’t cheesy as fuck unlike something you’d see in a major studio release. This is the action thriller that we deserve but the one we will never get…in an AMC theatre. Alamo Drafthouse, you’re our only hope.

Keanu Reeves gives this movie a 5/5.

P.S. For now on Keanu Reeve’s will be rating these movies for me.