Hollywood Set to Ruin The Raid: Redemption

If you are unfamiliar with the Indonesian film Serbuan Maut (which was renamed The Raid: Redemption for American audiences), I INSIST that you stop reading right now and watch this trailer:





This is the second film by Welsh director Gareth Evans to feature the Indonesian martial art known as Pencak Silat. The story is simple. A group of elite cops raid a rundown apartment building in order to take down a murderous crime lord who lives and works on the top floor. The building is protected by bloodthirsty goons and the cops must shoot, hack and brutally fight their way up, floor after floor.

The movie starts slowly. At first the men are heavily armed, and I found myself thinking "for a martial arts flick there sure isn't a lot of hand-to-hand combat." But when the bullets were spent, the real fighting began. It was the most vicious, intricately choreographed, mind-blowingly, ass-kickingly intense fighting I've ever seen on screen. The fights seem to be impossibly long and just when you think they can't get any more explosive, something will happen that makes you emit sounds you didn't know you could make. I watched the movie in theaters with a group of six men (my husband and his coworkers), who all fancy themselves martial arts movie aficionados. All six were squirming in their seats, shouting at the screen, clapping, gasping, oohing and aahing. As we walked out of the theater, they all agreed that this film raised the bar for all fighting movies that come after it. It has forever changed the game.

So, naturally, Hollywood wants it and will inevitably ruin it. Screen Gems is currently in negotiations to create an American remake, which makes my blood boil. There is absolutely no need for us to even attempt to create what Evans masterfully produced. His actors, most notably Iko Uwais, are professional martial artists trained in Silat. What American actor is going to be able to pull off the superhuman moves that these athletes brought to Raid: Redemption? Are Americans so against a few subtitles that they can't just watch the original? There really isn't much dialogue to begin with!

I urge you to see the original film in theaters, if possible. At the very least, catch it on DVD.

REVIEW: Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods is the horror film fanboys and girls have been waiting for. Joss Whedon, reigning King of Geeks and creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly, co-wrote and produced this film with longtime collaborator Drew Goddard. On the surface, it sounds like every cliched slasher flick ever written. A group of friends vacationing in a deserted cabin are greeted by some kind of monster hellbent on brutally slaying them. There's the innocent girl, the promiscuous girl, the jock, the smart kid, the stoner. The trailer even says "you think you know the story..." and "you think you know the place...". Trust me, you don't.  This is unlike any horror film you've seen before.

Whedon and Goddard tear the face off of the horror genre, attacking every horror movie trope we've been watching for years, and they do it with humor and ingenuity. Hardcore horror fans will be delighted by specific references scattered throughout the film (without giving too much away, I will simply say this: pay close attention to the white board scene). I do wonder how enjoyable the film would be to someone who doesn't watch a lot of horror and won't understand their tongue-in-cheek commentary on the genre.

The only flaw I found with the film is that it (quite literally) descends into madness in the third act, requiring a hefty suspension of disbelief to stay on board. I definitely had moments of "what the hell am I witnessing?" followed closely by "THIS IS FREAKIN' AWESOME!" It is by far the most creative horror movie I have seen.

Rental of the Day: Hatchet and Hatchet 2

Today I'm doing the Rental of the Day a little differently. This film comes with a personal back story! In 2010, I attended nerdvana, otherwise known as the San Diego Comic Con. In addition to wildly popular panels like those for the shows Big Bang Theory and True Blood (which had an audience of thousands), I also found myself in a tiny room at the hotel across from the convention center for a panel with Lloyd Kaufman, the creator of the infamous Troma Entertainment film studio and director James Gunn (Super, Slither). There was another director on the panel, Adam Green, with whom I wasn't familiar. Green showed a clip from film Hatchet 2, the sequel to his first film about Victor Crowley, a terrifying disfigured monster who lives in the swamps of New Orleans and hunts down tourists. The trailer was both gruesome and hilarious. Green proudly announced that the movie would be going into theaters unrated so that he didn't have to cut out any of the gore that earned the film an NC-17 rating. He urged us all to see it in theaters and tell our friends about it. If an unrated movie could be successful, we'd all be sticking it to the tyrannical MPAA. I was so excited about the film that as soon as I returned to Miami, I tracked down Hatchet 1 and watched it with friends. It was a deliciously campy gorefest. I was even more excited for the sequel.

On October 1, 2010, the film began playing in AMC theaters as a part of their independent film series. My husband and I made plans to see it on the 5th, but much to our dismay the film was inexplicably pulled from theaters October 4th. It found a home on Video on Demand and DVD, but we were disappointed that we'd missed it on the big screen and that the film wasn't given a fair chance to shake up the ratings game.

I highly recommend checking out both films. The first features a group of friends in town for Mardi Gras who decide to take a haunted swamp tour. When their boat crashes and sinks they are picked off by the murderous Crowley who calls the bayou home. Green gives us what the PG-13 horror movies today don't- truly disgusting gore. He balances the carnage with humor, making both films a really entertaining ride.

Both films are available on Netflix Instant, Netflix DVD or Blockbuster online.


**If horror is your thing, be sure to come back soon for a review of Cabin in the Woods!**