WOW. What can I say? This is probably the MOST VIOLENT FILM I have ever seen. In a GOOD WAY though! The first 1/3 of the film is pretty slow, but when it started picking up, it NEVER LETS DOWN. Director GARETH EVANS really outdone himself this time. Every hit, every shot, every slice, and every crack of the bone was so visceral with so much IMPACT to the point where it was painful to watch. The action was unbelievable. From the car chase (which was brilliantly staged by BRUCE LAW) to the finale consisting of:

1) Rama vs ‘Hammer Girl’ and ‘Baseball Bat Man’ in the alleyway, and
2) Rama vs ‘The Assassin’,

both were FLAWLESS. The finale actually reminded me of WILSON YIP’s ‘SPL’ when DONNIE YEN had to first fight WU JING (in an alleyway of course!) to get to SAMMO HUNG. The major difference is that THE RAID 2 is 10 times more violent. All and all, I still actually kind of prefer the original a little bit more because I can’t help but feel that I’ve seen this whole ‘undercover’ plot one too many times in other movies. But hell, who am I kidding? This movie took the ‘undercover’ plot and injected it with steroids. Lets just say if you are an action genre fan, you definitely won’t be disappointed. IKO UWAIS is DA MAN!

PLOT: 3/5
ACTING: 4/5
ACTION: 5/5
OVERALL: 4/5