Winning review of THE RAID

'Provocative!', 'Violent', 'Pumped of sweat and adrenaline'... After receiving all your entries, we've selected our winner - congratulations! We publish the winning 150-word review of The Raid by Bernard O'Rourke below.

What is my favourite action movie?  Either Die Hard or Hard Boiled.

I can’t decide which I like better, but a Welsh director named Gareth Evans may have finally solved that problem for me. The Raid takes the best bits from both my favourite movies – the claustrophobic setting and unity of place of Die Hard mixed with the sheer explosive spectacle of Hard Boiled – and fuses them together into the holy grail of action cinema.

The Raid’s dizzy shootouts and visceral hand-to-hand brawls are perfectly handled and suitably jaw-dropping, but more importantly Iko Uwais (like John McClane) always seems like an underdog pitted against impossible odds. This is what a good action film should always have at its core, something CGI driven Hollywood blockbusters seem to have forgotten.

The only thing The Raid is missing is the word “hard” in the title, because they don’t come any harder than this.

Bernard O'Rourke

The Raid continues at the IFI until June 14th. For more information and bookings, please contact our Box Office on 01 679 3477, or book online www.ifi.ie.

IFI Audience also said:


"Brace yourself for the action film of the year - The Raid delivers on every level" - Gareth O'Connor


"If you have a notion you may enjoy this film, go and see it. Do not miss out" - Daragh O'Farrell


"I will definitely see it again...it almost has me taking up Pencak Silati" - Brendan Griffin

"Never underestimate the persistence of paranoia - possibly the greatest line in cinamatic history" - David Thomson

... and a special mention goes to Will "Papa Kenn" Damron and his video-review: