3. REVIEW
I figure watching this movie is pretty darned close to getting a
shot of adrenaline through the chest and it’s all but impossible
to not wince, cheer and applaud throughout.
The plot is very basic — a SWAT team goes to a tenement to
shut down a vicious gangster only to become trapped in a in a
fight for survival against his seemingly endless army — but it
gets the job done and Director/Writer Gareth Evans even
manages to work in a few twists you probably won’t see coming.
Jaka (Joe Taslim) leads his 19 team members, including the rookie Rama (Iko Uwais), into the building to
once and for all take down the crime lord, Tama (Ray Sahetapy) and his lieutenants Mad Dog (Yayan
Ruhian) and Andi (Donny Alamsyah). Joining the assault is Lt. Wahyu (Pierre Gruno), who’s looking to
settle an old grudge with Tama.The Raid Redemption Jaka vs Mad Dog
My only regret was watching “Dredd” a few months before as it featured a somewhat similar plot of
police officers fighting for their lives in a slum ruled by an evil crime lord. Thankfully, the films take
different approaches in getting through the henchmen gauntlet.The-Raid-Redemption- machete lunatic
leader
This will resonate most strongly with the 25 to 39-year-old male demographic weaned on marathon
sessions of Nintendo and Sega Genesis beat ‘em up video games. There’s definitely a sense of battling the
swarms of bad guys on a stage and then having to tangle with the boss to advance to the next level with
even more overwhelming odds.
From the machete wielding lunatics to Mad Dog, it won’t be easy for Jaka and Rama to get the team out
safely. Ruhian may be 5 feet, but he makes Mad Dog one of the most intense, deadliest bad guys you’ll
find.
Evans shows a great sense of how to stage fight scenes and is very reserved in quick cuts or shifting
perspectives. It makes the fights seem more brutal and an actual matter of life and death and less the
product of a film editor carefully splicing away in tune to a soundtrack.
I’m not so much recommending “The Raid: Redemption” to action fans as I am saying you really have an
obligation to see it to witness what has a legitimate claim of being the best action film of all time.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
4. 3D: vivo o muerto
If 3D technology is ever going to become mainstream
across both television and cinema then film director
James Cameron will be one very important person to
thank.
The multiple Oscar-winner, who brought mega movie
hits including The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss,
Titanic and Avatar to the big screen, is in the
vanguard of 3D research and development most
recently in sports with plans to shoot the biannual
Ryder Cup in 3D and via his recent deep-sea
exploration work in the seven-mile-deep Mariana
Trench. He is also about to start shooting the next
instalment of Avatar, which will of course be in 3D.
The 62-year-old Canadian is best known as a director
– he holds the record for the top two highest-grossing
films ever with Avatar and Titanic – but he is also a
crusading evangelist for 3D; he is part-owner and cochairman of the Cameron Pace Group (CPG), a
company that builds 3D rigs and 3D cameras both for
Cameron's own productions as well as for a host of
different broadcasters including National Geographic
and ESPN. CPG recently created a China-based
subsidiary to bring its expertise in 3D filming and
production to one of the fastest-growing 3D markets
in the world.
"All things are better in 3D," enthused Cameron
backstage after a presentation about his dive to the
bottom of the Mariana Trench delivered at the IBC
broadcast technology exhibition in Amsterdam.
Navigating to the ocean's floor in a specially designed
submersible built over seven years, Cameron filmed
in 3D with nano-cameras developed by CPG that can
be held in the palm of your hand and are able to
withstand pressures of 16,000 psi at 36,000ft
underwater. "What's the point of setting the world's
depth record if you don't shoot it in 3D?!" quipped
Cameron. In addition to being a film director and
technology pioneer Cameron is also a keen
adventurer and is a National Geographic explorer in
residence.
This month CPG will work for the first time with the
UK pay TV operator BSkyB on the Ryder Cup, using 26
3D cameras for the bi-annual event this year staged
in Chicago. This follows CPG partnering with ESPN on
the Aspen, Co.-staged X Games over a number of
years. "Symbolically the deal with BSkyB shows that
we are a go-to partner for Europe as well as in
America and the idea is to get close to Sky in the UK
and also to Sky in Germany and Italy as they roll out
3D," said Cameron.
Cameron's allegiance to 3D is unswerving and he
believes this style of filming will only increase in
popularity among broadcasters because the modern
3D cameras can simultaneously broadcast a 2D feed,
if necessary, and also the issue of viewers having to
wear cumbersome glasses is close to being resolved.
In fact at IBC there were prototypes of glasses-free
3D screens – TVs, smart phones and tablets –
developed by Dolby Laboratories and Royal Philips
Electronics that drew crowds. "What will cause a
breakthrough is the move to TV sets and other
devices where you don't need to wear the glasses,"
said Cameron. "That will cause the (adoption) curve
to elbow up."
Cameron also has a more personal agenda. "Even a
3D movie like Avatar which is made for the cinema
will enjoy the greater part of its lifespan on video
seen on the home TV screen," said Cameron. "We
can't make movies in 3D fast enough to justify the
wide adoption of 3D TVs so in my enlightened selfinterest as a film-maker I want to see the broadcaster
market expand rapidly so everyone is watching in
3D." Cameron believes that TV shows like CSI and
Game of Thrones and other glossy TV dramas should
all be shot in 3D. The idea is that the more
programming there is in 3D, the more incentive there
is for the consumer electronics companies to make
3D sets and other devices. "It's a positive feedback
loop," he explained.
5. To support his 3D commitment, Cameron is
working on three follow-up Avatar movies, all in
3D, of course. In fact, Avatar 2 is set to start
shooting this autumn and could be in cinemas by
2015 and yes, Sigourney Weaver, who played the
chain-smoking scientist who died at the end of
the original Avatar, will be back for Avatar 2.
According to Cameron, one of the biggest
problems with getting TV productions shot in 3D
is the higher cost, but he says that although 3D
shoots can be 20% to 30% higher on a singleprogramme shoot, that for a bigger, multipleepisode TV series these costs fall to only 2% to
3% more than a standard 2D shoot.
"For Avatar there was no additional camera
shooting in 3D," said Cameron. "Most of Avatar
was one camera or two cameras if we were
blowing something up. But most of it was one
camera handheld on my shoulder or on a dolly or
a steady cam. And that is basically the same way
a scripted series is shot: two shots, two overs,
two close ups and then you move on."
Cameron calls TV drama series the "low-hanging
fruit" for 3D development. "Where you get into
their economic muscle."
big additional costs in 3D is when you add the
visual effects," said Cameron citing Martin
Scorsese's 3D kids fantasy Hugo and Ang Lee's
forthcoming Life of Pi, both of which have lots of
computer-generated images or CGI.
China is one market where Cameron sees very
big 3D potential. CPG has recently opened a
China branch for both 3D cinema and TV
productions. He says the China business will
likely double the size of CPG over the next year
because there is such huge demand there, with a
new 3D screen cinema opening almost one a
day. "China is adding new TV channels in 3D
every day. They want to take 3D to scale as
rapidly as we can do it. We've been working to
be able to do hundreds of hours of 3D at CPG but
now we are working to be able to do 6,000 to
7,000 hours of 3DTV because of China." In China,
Avatar, Titanic and Transformers – all in 3D – are
the three highest-grossing titles, said Cameron.
"The Chinese audience loves 3D. They see it as a
premium brand and they are very brand
conscious now as they flex
James Cameron dice “el futuro
del cine está en el 3D”.
