E Unit

Oldboy 2?

DaveyJoe

Cool! Looks like they're bringing the guy who played Mad Dog back. Normally that would bother me, but Mad Dog was amazing in the first movie, so it'll great to see him kicking ass again. I wonder if he'll be another villain?

Interesting to see some Japanese faces in that trailer. I recognized Kenichi Endo from several Takashi Miike movies, I wonder if the crime syndicate has ties to the Yakuza.

Curious about the soundtrack in this movie. I was never a fan of Linkin Park but I really liked the music in the American version of the Raid. Looks like they have the guy who did the Indonesian score returning for this one, I hope the music has the same pulsing energy from the first one.

Dan

Yeah, same actor, totally different character. I'm fine with this because, as you said, he kicked ass. I think he's also the fight choreographer for all of Evans' films so far (Merantau, The Raid, and now this).

That'd be cool.

Actually, Joe Trapanese did the American score with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park on the first film, he didn't do the original Indonesian score. So, Trapanese is back for Raid 2's score, but it looks like Shinoda is not.
edit: correction. You were right. The original score composers (Aria Prayogi and Fajar Yuskemal) are back, ALONG with Joe Trapanese. So it's like both teams are working together this time... but still no Shinoda

DaveyJoe

You're right, I was under the impression that Shinoda did the American score by himself. I never listened to the original Indonesian score because I was so pleased with the American score, so with Trapanese returning, hopefully I'll enjoy the score for Raid 2 just as much.

Rypro 525

where's the Randy Marsh 'i just jizzed all over myself pic?

RocShemp

Meh. Doesn't look like anything special. Then again, I also thought the first one was simply a chore to watch.

redrum

islandclaws

I think it looks cool, but like RocShemp, I just don't get why everyone loses their shit over the first one. It was good, nothing amazing.

redrum

Naw the fight scenes were pretty amazing

Specially the first hallway scene with the knife

Solid Snake

I don't know what awesome world that normally makes good action in movies you live in but I don't live there. The Raid had great action.

Also I really really liked Evans work in VHS2. That was awesome.

islandclaws

Ok, fine, The Raid had great action. But great action alone doesn't make a movie great.

DaveyJoe

It makes a great action movie, I like that it wasn't bogged down with a convoluted story or a forced romantic subplot. I wanted to see awesome martial arts fights and that's exactly what I got. The characters were likable and it was surprisingly suspenseful. I'm not a fan of "turn your brain off" dumb action movies like Transformers, but I thought The Raid was one of the best pure action movies in years. It did exactly what it set out to do without insulting the audience's intelligence or whoring itself out to product placement.

Solid Snake

It wasn't a great movie but it was worth it existing for the great action. A solid action flick. Also the music rocked. I hate being a kid of the 80s. Great action was around so much for me as a kid.

fumanstan

asianxcore

The teaser looks fun. Definitely in for this film.

hanshotfirst1138

I did seem like a lot of critics who reviewed it had never seen another martial arts movie in their lives. "The fight scenes play like choreographed dance numbers!" Um, yeah, they've been saying that for 30 years, did you just get to this party?

This. Evans choreography was pretty impressive, and he knew when to slow the movie down when he needed to, make it suspenseful, and pace it. It wasn't high art, but it was a lean and mean exploitation movie that knew exactly what it was and did it well. It was kinetic energy, an action movie in the purest sense of the word. He cites Assault On Precinct 13 as an influence, and IMO it's easy to see why. He has that same tough, no-nonsense style.

Dan

http://filmguide.sundance.org/film/14040/the_raid_2
148 minutes
Supposedly, still packed with nearly non-stop action like the first one, but this time all around the city of Jakarta.

hanshotfirst1138

Sounds awfully long for a martial arts film.

Dan

It's going to be a tough sell for 'murica, that's for sure.

Rypro 525

going the american route i see, as many/most action epics now a days are near 2,5 hours. i have no problem whatsoever with the length here

E Unit

The Weinsteins will get US distribution and no doubt dwindle it down to 95 minutes.

DaveyJoe

Doubtful. The Raid had enough hype to play in my small town and I was thrilled to see it on the big screen. It was the first foreign movie to play at my local theater since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It played uncut, in the original language with subtitles. I think this franchise has enough hype to play in America without being butchered.

hanshotfirst1138

There was a poster for the first at my local AMC, but I don't think they ever wound up getting it. I had to jockey out a ways to see it, but still at a multiplex, so at least it had some distribution. Hopefully the US cut won't be rescored this time.

Yeah, and IMO, to most of them, it's detrimental. One of the virtues of The Raid was its understanding of B-movie virtues in how lean and mean it was. Still, I'll go see this if it goes wide. My local AMC have frankly been much better with showing more esoteric stuff than they have any right to, so maybe it'll show up there.

E Unit

I was joking...but I'm guessing the US cut will be altered in some way due to that run time. Besides - franchise? I don't think this will go past another movie, if that.

DaveyJoe

Fair enough, that was a very unfortunate trend and it was a mixed blessing/curse when Miramax would get its hands on foreign features. They were bringing exposure to obscure foreign movies but also butchering them in the process. But I think that trend has gone away, I can't think of many examples of this happening recently. I think we'll get The Raid 2 as it was meant to be seen.