The Raid 2 Obliterates Sundance Crowd

...and with those few eloquent words, you pretty much have the gist of overwhelmingly orgasmic reactions to Gareth Evan's The Raid 2 which premiered at Sundance yesterday.

Due here on March 28, the sequel to the 2011 bone-crunching Indonesian actioner has generated plenty of buzz among fans, and if the tweets last night are anything to go by, then Evans has really delivered the goods, and then some. Here's a sampling of those tweets:

Comparisons to Kubrick AND Kurosawa? Holy shit! There HAVE been a few more "balanced" reviews -- like this Indiewire one, and this dude who almost vomited -- and I still do have concerns over the film's 148-minute length. But damn, I'm so ready to be broken by this movie. Click below for the latest trailer: And if you haven't seen the first one, rent it here!

Teaser Trailer: The Raid 2: Berandal

When The Raid came out last year, it knocked all our socks off here at Fatso. This Indonesian  actioner raised the martial arts genre to a whole new level of bone-breaking bad-assery, and made a star out of its lead Iko Uwais, a dazzling silat expert. Naturally, a sequel was announced not long after, with writer/director Gareth Evans promising the scale of the action to be much larger and more ambitious than before. Based on the teaser that's just gone online, I don't think we'll be disappointed. Although it's fairly brief, the flashes of action that we do see is enough to get us freakin' excited. Click below for a wall-punchingly intense glimpse of The Raid 2: Berandal:

The Raid Will Knock Your Socks Off

The good folk at Madman held a preview screening of Gareth Evans' much-hyped Indonesian actioner The Raid a couple of nights ago and boy did it bring the house down. This isn't a review, just a few quick words, mostly to say... it delivers, and then some. The trailer is a good indication of what to expect, but it's a movie that actually surpasses the trailer in its promise. It's been a while since I've been so slammed into my seat by an action film; after watching The Raid you'll find anything coming out of Hollywood too limp-wristed in comparison. I'm pretty hard to please when it comes to action films so I'm not saying any of this lightly. The Raid is IN-SANE. Go see it and tell your friends. It'll be in theatres March 22nd. I'll be going for a second hit.