One of the many reasons we’re insanely jealous of the crowds in Park City at the moment is that Gareth Evans’ The Raid 2: Berandal makes its anticipated debut at the Sundance Film Festival. Not that Berandal is a "Sundance" movie. It’s more of an ass-kicking Midnight Madness movie that’s sure to get action junkie pulses racing, as you can tell from the new trailer that just arrived online.
Yahoo Movies shared the clip, which is a much longer look at the follow up movie to Evans’ surprising hit, The Raid (also known as its silly alternate title, The Raid: Redemption). From what we hear, the sequel takes place minutes after the first movie has concluded. Ridiculously unstoppable cop Rama (Iko Uwais) has dispatched with a tenement filled with lethal baddies, and now must pay for his actions. In classic "sequel" move, Rama is ordered to infiltrate a prison this time, posing as a convict so that he can get at some important villains from the inside. Years ago, this part might have been played by Sly Stallone. Uwais is a serious upgrade.
The Raid shocked many with its success, dominating film festival screenings and earning a strong cult following because of Evans’ insane fight choreography. I wouldn’t want to be him at the moment, given the fact that he somehow is going to have to top the insane stunts and kills he brought to the first movie… which brings us to today’s clip.
I love that Berandal isn’t recycling the same scenario. Rama was trapped in a building in the first movie. This story increases the scope, pitting the hero against "the entire underworld," as the trailer suggests. And as you can tell, Rama is going to run into a lot of opposition. A LOT. And he’s going to vanquish them in colorful situations. On trains. In a mud-soaked prison yard. Whatever it takes.
If you want to go into Berandal unspoiled, you might want to stay off the Internet for the next few days. I imagine once the movie screens at Sundance, Twitter is going to explode with Raid groupies describing the various, insane kills that Evans has put into his sequel. And if you need more footage, we teased shorter clips from Raid 2 earlier. The movie will be in theaters on March 28. What do you think so far?
