The Two Greatest Action Movies Of The Last Decade Are On Netflix
The Raid: Redemption and its sequel The Raid 2 are both streaming on Netflix.
If you’re in the mood for top-notch fight choreography, you’re in luck. The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2, two of the best action movies of the last decade, just hit Netflix and are available to stream. Make sure to check them out if you’ve missed them before.
The plot of 2011’s The Raid is straightforward and streamlined, which gives the action and fight scenes plenty of room to shine. The film follows an elite squad that must raid a high-rise run by a ruthless drug lord in the Jakarta slums. While the plot is solid and entertaining enough, it’s not the main draw of either of these films.
Both films heavily use the Indonesian martial arts discipline of pencak silat in the fight scenes, and it makes for extremely kinetic and thrilling fight scenes. Director Gareth Evans also opted for a more documentary style of shooting, using a handheld camera to get up close to the action. These choices help to elevate The Raid and its sequel even further and make the action even more visceral.
The story behind how The Raid was made is pretty cool, too, as the star and co-fight choregrapher of the film, Iko Uwais, was essentially unknown before meeting director Gareth Evans. Evans had moved to Indonesia in the late 2000s to film a pencak silat documentary when he met Uwais, who was working as a delivery man for a phone company at the time. Uwais was also a Silat practitioner, and Evans would end up collaborating with him on the 2009 film Merantau.
Evans would then begin work on a prison gangster film titled Berandal, which would also star Iko Uwais. Although they would get far enough along on this project to release a teaser trailer, they ran out of money to continue production on the film. Thus, Evans decided to change the story, simplify it, and change the title to Serbuan Maut (The Raid).
During production, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions would nab the US distribution rights for the film and bring Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and composer Joseph Trapanese to compose the score. The title would also be changed to The Raid: Redemption for US release and premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. People ended up loving the film, and it would even win the Midnight Madness – People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Raid: Redemption ended up bringing in about $4.1 million in North America and $9.3 million overseas outside of Indonesia. It also brought in around 250,000 people in Indonesia to see it in theaters, despite the country only having about 660 screens at the time. It would also do well in DVD and Blu-Ray sales, and a sequel was eventually greenlit.
When Gareth Evans was given the green light to make The Raid 2, he actually dug up his script for the previously defunct Berandal and rewrote it to connect with the events of the previous film. Iko Uwais’s character would return to go undercover and expose the corrupt police working with Jakarta’s underground crime families. The film would also receive critical praise and got an extremely positive reaction when it premiered at Sundance.
With all the love for The Raid and its sequel, you would think there might be a third film in the works. However, Evans indicated that there likely wouldn’t be a third film happening anytime soon, if at all. While he initially said he had ideas for a threequel, in 2018 he stated that he felt the story was complete and that a third film likely won’t be happening.
However, there is more from The Raid franchise on the way. In 2022, it was announced that there would be an American remake of the film coming to Netflix that would be directed by Patrick Hughes. Michael Bay is also on board as producer, with Evans executive producing the project.
It’ll be interesting to see if The Raid American remake can live up to the very high bars set by the original and its sequel. But even if it doesn’t, we still have the first two films to go back to time and time again. Make sure to check them both out on Netflix to see why they’re considering some of the best action films of the last decade.
