The violence is so stylized, so energetic, and so magnificently choreographed that it abstracts into something beyond mere brawling; it's about the joy of performance and the thrill of capturing that performance.

| Jun 18, 2016

Stylishly shot, edited with a lot of confidence in the audience's ability to follow parallel action, and ... faster and more brutal than anything else on the market.

| Apr 28, 2014

It is adolescent male wish- fulfillment fantasy of the most retrograde kind but, as action cinema, the Jakarta-set thriller The Raid 2 is riveting fare.

| Apr 11, 2014

Men snap, crackle and pop before our eyes, their broken bones part of the gloriously kitsch, balletic fun.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 11, 2014

If The Raid 2: Berandal doesn't end up as the most violent movie to hit screens in 2014, it won't be for lack of trying.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 11, 2014

Two and-a-half hours may seem like a lot for an Indonesian crime saga, but "The Raid 2" has a sweeping scope that justifies its running time. And it will knock you out.

| Original Score: A | Apr 11, 2014

A brilliant, dazzling, and devastating 21/2-hour ballet of brutality that's more ordeal than entertainment ...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 11, 2014

For those of us who believe the prime directive of action pictures is that such movies ought to, by gawd, move , Gareth Evans is our new patron saint.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 10, 2014

At once messy and adrenalizing ...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 10, 2014

By opening the action up to the entire city for the sequel, there's less claustrophobia but also less excitement.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 10, 2014

The Raid 2 doesn't so much raise the bar for action filmmaking as it pummels that bar into a mangled piece of metal that resembles nothing if not the gauntlet that's been thrown down here.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 10, 2014

Iko Uwais is back for another heartstopping dose of bar-raising martial arts action.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2014

You sit, smeary-faced, as Evans exhausts one cold-blooded hoodlum confrontation after another - in prisons, in restaurants, on the subway. It is so expertly played, it never becomes stupid ...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 10, 2014

Evans gives us another slice of spleen-splittingly, pelvis-dislodgingly, inner-ear-damagingly hardcore action. He lets rip with everything but subtlety.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2014

The plot is murky, the acting is melodramatic and the movie is way too long, but the target audience will salivate over the inventively choreographed set-pieces ...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 10, 2014

Certainly, The Raid 2, a glorious head-butt of a movie, is not for the squeamish...but for those who prefer some slam in their cinema, it delivers.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2014

Gareth Evans is throwing an impressive gauntlet down to his audience here. Someone's face is pulled apart by the teeth, while he screams. Think you can handle this?

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 10, 2014

A bulkier, slower beast than Evans' first film. But when it enters combat mode, it's more raucously bloodthirsty than anything you've ever seen.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 7, 2014

Make no mistake. If what you're after is insane, mind-bogglingly violent martial arts action, The Raid 2 is quite possibly the ultimate.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 3, 2014

The story is convoluted without being profound, and although there are some strong secondary performances, Uwais is interesting only when in motion.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 3, 2014