THE RAID REVIEW

Watching The Raid at this year's JDIFF, I recalled a quote from action-icon Sylvester Stallone, regarding his stance on the genre itself. He said that action films should have a physical effect on you. That you should leave the theater with a thumping heart, sweaty palms and a sky-rocketing energy level. Stallone succeeded in giving me that exact feeling with his 2008 sequel, Rambo; a film that's thrilling, crazy violent and yet smart and emotional. Gareth Evans may have read that exact same quote too, as The Raid is surely the most intense and physical action film since Stallone's Rambo.

The Raid begins slow and silent, with our hero Rama (Iko Uwais) preparing for his early-morning mission to the slums of Jakarta. With his calm preparation over, Rama kisses his pregnant wife goodbye and sets off. The film wastes no time in diving straight into the titular raid, as the next scene is Rama and his fellow team members hauling-ass to the tower where the cities crime-lord is living among dozens of addicts, thieves, murderers and other assorted low-lives. Splitting into groups to two, the team enter the building and are shortly confronted by the swarms of villains that stand between them and their goal. 

While The Raid is, at first glance, a little light on plot, don't be fooled. It's smart and well-written with a tight storyline that's kept moving at breakneck speed. Admittedly, I was surprised at how much care and attention was given to the film's characters and story as opposed to the often poorly-written-with-amazing-action films that plague the genre. Here we have a fully realized hero, villain, supporting characters and honest and realistic motivations...as well as amazing action. 

And speaking of amazing action, The Raid contains some of the greatest displays of martial arts to ever grace the silver screen. Using the martial arts style Silat, Rama destroys enemy after enemy in gloriously gruesome and incredibly choreographed ways. The team moves from guns to knives to their fists as the action gets better and better, building to new heights of Holy-Shit madness. The action is also technically flawless, as the editing, direction, stunt choreography and soundtrack all come together to create action-exquisiteness. It really has to be seen to be believed. 

I'd heard that director Gareth Evans' first film, Merantau, cemented him as a talented filmmaker on the way up, but with his work here, I'd be surprised if people don't hold him up against the likes of John Woo in the future. The Raid is a masterpiece of action cinema. You have never seen anything like it. 

CHRONICLE REVIEW

WARNING: this review contains minor SPOILERS!

The found-footage sub-genre has long been a staple in the horror world. There are countless entries and it seems recently we've been inundated with piss-poor efforts such as Apollo 18 and Paranormal Activity 3. It's also one of cinema's biggest enigmas. Each new found-footage film seems to get an all-round beating from audiences across the globe only to go on and make millions and millions of dollars (I'm looking at you, The Devil Inside). And so it was with genuine reluctance that I entered the movie theater this morning to catch an early showing of 20th Century Fox's Chronicle.

Chronicle takes the found-footage basic rules and applies them to the other hugely popular sub-genre; superheroes. The film begins with Andrew (Dane DeHaan), the lonely, isolated high-schooler, setting up his camera in the mirror. Stomping and shouting outside his bedroom door is his abusive alcoholic father, Richard (Michael Kelly). This is where we learn the reasoning for the camera; Andrew tells his father he's going to continue to film everything, both inside and outside the house, perhaps in hopes this warning will curb his father's beatings. It's a very interesting idea and it makes for a hell of a better reason than the usual "the world should know what happened here today" bullshit. Later we're introduced to Andrew's cousin, Matt (Alex Russell) and his friend Steve (Michael B. Jordan), just as the trio discover a mysterious glowing stone buried deep in a cavern near a party the boys are attending. The glowing stone seems to emit some type of radiation that then gives the boys their super-powers such as flight, invulnerability and psychokinesis. It's here that director Josh Trank fast-forwards to get into the meat of the story, not concerned with telling us where the stone came from or what it is.

The next 30 minutes or so play out roughly as we'd expect; one super-powered prank after another, each showcasing the boy's growing strength and control over their abilities and the abilities themselves. Each fantastical stunt builds onto one another until we reach the film's astonishing climactic set-piece. And it's here that Chronicle really soars. The finale is so well-realized that it'll leave you with your jaw on the floor. Trank applies a few sneaky tricks to work around the questionable constant-camera technique that plagues found-footage films (really, why would you keep filming in the midst of a battle, chase or disaster?) including S.W.A.T. cameras, news helicopters and CCTV cameras. Chronicle most resembles the classic hero archetype in it's final moments. It's the epic battle between good and evil. It's the birth of a hero and the death(?) of a villain. By the end, you'll have forgotten all about the found-footage angle of the film, which is a success in my books. Instead you'll be sucked into the character's story and their all-too-relatable emotions (and the great special effects, of course).

I find that one scene in Chronicle captures my delight with the film perfectly. When the trio first learn they can fly, they quickly soar to the sky to play a game of 1,000ft-high football. As they're wizzing through the sky, we get some really beautiful footage of the clouds and the landscape below, with the sun setting far in the distance. It reminded me of Warner Bros.' original teaser trailer for Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie in which we first heard the tagline, "You will believe a man can fly". Chronicle has almost had the same effect on me as Donner's superhero classic. I feel like a kid again, one that daydreams of shooting through the sky, faster than a bullet, away from my troubles and strife's. That's kind of the point of it all. And director Josh Trank, Dane DeHaan and the rest have created a wonderful superhero story and a piece of pure escapism for all of us who ever dreamed we could fly.