It would be fair to say that Gareth Evans shocked the action world with his kinetic tour de force The Raid: Redemption, which sent a police officer named Rama (Iko Uwais) into an urban hell zone, a towering high-rise tenement, in search of a mobster protected by killers, thugs and ultimately the police. The Raid 2 picks up right where Redemption left off, with Rama momentarily safe, but fearful for the safety of his family. So he agrees to go deep undercover among the criminals in a dangerous and isolated prison. Without the benefit of catching audiences off guard, it looks like Evans, again writing and directing, will simply give us more — loads more of the furious fists, feet and anything else handy and/or potentially lethal within range to satisfy a bloodlust we probably never knew (or were willing to admit) we had. Opens April 11 at Esquire Theatre. (R) Not screened in time for review
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2014.