Movies & TV / Columns

The Man Movie Encyclopedia: The Raid

February 22, 2018 | Posted by Caliber Winfield
The Raid

manmovieheader
Greetings, beautiful people.

Not much to say in the wind-up here. I’ve seen a shit-load of movies lately; Justice League, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, and a few other older ones that I’d heard great things about, such as Edge of Tomorrow, Collateral, and Jack Reacher [I was on a Cruise kick]. I figured what the hell and I’ll write up my reviews for those on my website, Str8 Gangster No Chaser.

Also, next week….The Man Movie Encyclopedia: Only A Ninja Can Review A Ninja. The most exciting thing since the debut of the original MME? You bet cha’.

Alright, our trip over-seas continues, with….

RAIDheader

There’s a Drug Lord posted up in a massive apartment building, and SWAT is here to take care of him, and all the criminal elements living there. Things go OK for the first few minutes, but once they’re discovered by a spotter, all hell breaks loose. Rama is our main guy, who’s got a pregnant wife at home.

RAIDteam

He begins leading the charge when they get trapped in a room, with an army of guys outside, armed to the teeth. He gets the idea to chop through the floor, and jump down to the next room, and continue that process for as long as it’ll work. However, the bad dudes figure that strategy out and are waiting, blasting up through the floor boards. Rama detaches a propane tank and shoves it inside a fridge, along with a grenade, pointed at the door. It blows everyone back, as well as kill the baddies behind the door.
However, that only means that others will take their place. These cats show up with machetes, which, as a good guy, I’d have to check the box “bummer” when I saw that. The remaining 5 escape, with 2 going up the hole they cam down in, and 3 going out the other door. The two who go up stairs, one of them is Rama, ultra-bad-ass. He proves it as he’s carrying one of his compatriots down a hall-way and he literally ends up fighting off 20 or so dudes as they come at him. He’s armed with a baton and a Rambo-style knife, and he’s either killing them, or making them wish they were dead. Meanwhile, his partner just crawls on the ground, and stabs a dude who’s basically dead anyway. It’d be tough being the partner who just lounged around while you’re friend was Supermaning the fuck out of the joint, but I’d make it work.

Rama: Caliber, bro, what’s up? Why were you just on the ground?
Caliber: Dude, I wasn’t JUST on the ground. I was under the assumption that you’d hit’em high, and I’d hit’em low. I was on LOCK for any of those cats that came at us who were like, 2ft or lower.
Rama:….are you saying you were on the ground to protect us from babies, todlers at best?
Caliber: Bruh, I saw that there was a clan of toddler killers once, in an issue of Weekly World News. Pretty sure Hard Copy and Current Affair ran the story too.

As the machete gang approaches, Rama and his partner duck inside an apartment of a dude who has no bad intentions, and is just a guy who signed the lease before reading the Yelp reviews that talked about it being owned by a ruthless drug-lord. His bad. He hides the two in the wall, and they narrowly escape being discovered. After they leave, Rama follows but ends up running into them anyway, and once again has to beat complete and total ass. It’s fucking fantastic.
Well, we discover the LT is actually dirty, as this wasn’t official. It was a hit. At this point it’s the LT, the SGT, and a team mate. The LT and the team mate get split up from the Sgt, who’s left to fight one of the Drug Lord’s 2 most important men, Mad Dog. A guy who loves fighting and is damn good at it. He says he wants to fight the Sgt to the death, because pulling a trigger is too easy. They have a hell of a fucking fight, but the Sgt gets his neck broken. We then learn that the drug lord’s other main man is Rama’s brother. He’s estranged from the family, and a gangster now. They have a discussion, Rama is all “come home”, and his brother is all “Nah, titties and coke. But hey, get out of here”. Eventually they both go back to their respective bosses. Rama meets up with the last surviving team mate and the LT, as they try to escape, and his brother meets with the drug lord, who now knows the score because of the cameras. He then sets a trap for Rama, who just got done fighting his way through a drug lab, again, in glorious fucking fashion.

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At this point, Rama and his brother go one on one with Mad Dog, and have arguably the greatest fight of all time, as both men fight to the point of exhaustion in an attempt to put this little fucker down. This fight is so fast, intense, beautifully shot and choreographed I absolutely loved every second of this.
Elsewhere, the LT and the team mate that’s been with him since the SGT died, finally make it to the top where the drug lord is. Once he’s tied up and secure, the LT shoots the cop in the head, and tells the drug lord he’s his ticket out of here. However, as they’re walking, the drug lord tells him that he’s a dead man. Because the reason he was sent on this hit, was to die. The higher-ups, they like him, because he pays them. The LT, he’s just a pawn. He’s nothing. At this point the LT opts out of the convo by killing the drug lord, and tries to opt out of life by killing himself. Unfortunately instead of a bullet, he just gets a swift order of “Suck it”, because there’s no more bullets. He ends up getting arrested by Rama, and the officer who was hiding out in that apartment. Rama, him, and the LT are escorted out of the complex by Rama’s brother, and off into the sunset.

MAN MOVIE ENCYCLOPEDIA TALLY
1-Liners:
Guys Beat Up: 31
Guys Killed: 41
Swear Words: [when it’s a forgien film I don’t count’em]
Explosions: 1
Chases: 1
Broken Bones: 1
Fight at a Motel? No
Guy Get Girl? Yes
Guy Smoke Cigarettes? No
Title Of Movie Said? No

MAN-FACTS:
The actor who plays Mad Dog, taught the Indonesian version of the Secret Service in Pencak Silat, which is an Indonesian martial that’s featured in this film.
All the guns were Air Soft replicas, and all the things you see that a regular gun would do, such as muzzle flashes and such, were digitally added.

C’MON BENNETT, LET’S PARTY!:
Simply put, The Raid is one of the greatest action movies of all time. After about a 10 minute start with no action, the remaining 90 minutes are non-stop, and fucking incredible. You have shoot-outs, machete fights, fist-fights, explosions, and it’s all flawless. I literally cannot say enough about this movie, an absolute masterpiece.
5 Head Butts Out Of 5

Any questions, comments, drunk-ramblings, feel free to send them my way, I always dig hearing from you, the beautiful people.
Twitter: @CaliberWinfield
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I post almost daily with workout related stuff to help you cats out, along with what’s coming down the pike via the MME, and general pop culture from the 80s and 90s that I can’t seem to let go of.
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If you just can’t wait until next week, you can also find me at these fine places:
The Man Movie Encyclopedia: The Hall of Burly – Vol. 1 – A collection of the first 19 MME articles written for 411. You get all the classics like Commando, Robocop, and Die Hard, not to mention bad-assery such as Point Break and They Live. Beyond that, you also get two new articles. My Top 5 favorite action movies, and what I believe to be the Top 5 most over-the-top scenes in action movie history. I won’t lie, it’s the greatest self=help/martial arts instruction book of all time.

My Summer Vacation At Camp Crystal Lake – My brand new ebook that’s become so popular it’s charting on the album sales charts. I cover the Friday The 13th franchise in Man Movie Encyclopedia fashion, followed up by a few list-based articles, chronicling my favorite kills, moments from the franchise, and a few other subjects. $3 via amazon, or simply email me and get it for $2, either way, it’ll probably change your life.
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