Delayed Reaction: The Raid: Redemption

The Pitch: Everyone is going to fight everyone.

How I Came Into It: Anecdotally, I remember it being at a local theater by me in 2011 for several weeks and having no idea what it was. I since learned that it is a highly regarded Indonesian martial arts action movie. Logical or not, what set me over the edge to finally see it was when the actors showed up in The Force Awakens. Make of that what you will. I knew that structurally, the movie Dredd is virtually the same thing. I liked Dredd. I would probably like this.
Oh, I nearly forgot. The director of this directed that insane cult story from the second V/H/S movie. So, yes, please.

Why I Saw It: This was a lot of fun. It's "Fight Choreography: The Movie", and that choreography is some of the best I've ever seen. Everything else about the story is as lean as possible. That commitment to one thing really works in this case. I can't wait to see the next one.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: The movie takes a while to get going. A lot of that is done on purpose in order to set the stakes and build the tension, so I can forgive it. Let me put it this way though. If I watch this again, I'll probably skip the first few chapters.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend