The Raid 2

The Raid 2 went into wide release this past weekend and luckily the theater down the street picked it up. So a bunch of friends and I descended on the theater to see the spectacle.

A trailer for your consideration.

Translates to The Raid 2: Retaliation

If you haven't seen The Raid: Redemption (The first movie) here is a quick recap:
In the Raid, a crew of cops storms an apartment building filled with bad guys, gangsters, drug dealers and kung fu masters apparently. The main character, Rama (Iko Uwais), is one of the cops and also a bad ass brawler. It takes about five minutes for the building management to go over the PA system and tell all the tenants that is they kill the cops they will get free rent for ever... Insane violence ensues. Rama eventually finds out his lost brother is working for the bad guys in the building and they team up to survive the fight. If you like hardcore action then this movie is for you!

Rama getting down and dirty during a prison riot

Now that we are on the same page The Raid two picks up right where the first leaves off. Rama gets inducted into a small unit trying to seek out the corruption in the system, they insert him into the prison system so he may get close to a mob boss' son, Uco (Arifin Putra). During a brutal prison riot he saves Uco's life and the movie instantly teleports us two years later. Rama is getting released from the slam and is picked up by Uco and brought to see his father. Rama gets hired as muscle and becomes part of Uco's crew. The plot from here out (like the first movie) is kind of cookie cutter.


 ********** SPOILER ALERT! Skip the italicized portion! **********

 Uco wants to take over the family business, his dad doesn't believe he is ready and too impulsive, Uco gets pissed and starts acting on his own, tries to take over the city, kills his dad and a bunch of Japanese gangsters then goes after Rama when he finds out he is a snitch. Everybody kills everybody. THE END. 

The plot of this movie is not the reason to watch. The Raid offers some of the most hardcore and insane action put to film to date. The movie feels like a video game, each successive fight scene ups the ante in difficulty and brutality. It hurts to watch, even the most jaded person will be cringing a few times during this film. The choreography is intricate and intense and the Boss fight bad guys are interesting. Two of these are Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man. [No kidding, these are their names]
Unfortunately, they don't delve into their past but I assume these two are a brother/sister assassin team. One of those a bit to close for coworkers, not

Hammer Girl getting busy on a train



I think the best thing I can show you for this movie is what they threw out. A few weeks before the limited release the production sent out a deleted scene for the movie. Watch it here. After watching that consider this: They cut that scene out of the movie because they didn't need it in the face of all the other insane scenes they left it.

Mixology - ABC

Last night I shot gunned what is out for the new ABC show Mixology. A show about ten singles in a bar that takes place, interestingly enough, over one night. The show follows around the twenty-somethings as they try and [most of the time] fail to find someone to go home with that evening.

I was a bit hesitant to check this show out as it looked like it was going to be a cookie cutter rom-com sitcom minus the laugh track but the commercial had a few moments that made me actually laugh and if a show can do that to me from the trailer (which is a tough thing to do) then I will actually give it a shot. I was very pleased with the finished product. It's characters are interesting and banter with each other very well and their interactions feel genuine. Each episode highlights two of the bar patrons and shows their past including showing how each one was delivered and gives insight into why they think the way they do. The show has funny pick up lines ["Are you ladies a fans of planned parenthood?"] and great rants about the state of the dating scene and thoughts about the opposite sex. The writers (who are also responsible for the Hangover series) have started a genuinely show and like the Hangover I hope they don't ruin it by making it go longer than it needs.

The Emerald City Runs Red in Dorothy Must Die

So I just finished Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. A dark tale of Oz that is not unlike American McGee's Alice. The novel is the first of a series and the first from the author. The story follows sixteen year old Amy, a poor, high school outcast, whose mother is a drunk pill addict and father has been out of the picture since she was young. Amy gets taken to Oz via the classic method of Tornado abduction and is dropped into an Oz of nightmare. It seems after Dorothy used the slipper express to return to Kansas she longed to return to Oz and after a time Glenda was able to do just that. Once back in the land Dorothy learned magic and took over the Emerald City. After learning magic she became greedy and wanted more and more. She enslaved the people of Oz and began harvesting the magic from the land. By the time Amy arrives she sees a barren landscape with giant fissures carved into the earth (in Oz magic comes from the ground apparently) with Glenda watching over munchkin slaves while they continue to gut the land. She eventually meets up with the resistance, led by a group of 'wicked' witches and is taught to fight and use magic. Her mission: to infiltrate Dorothy's Castle and assassinate her. All that is standing in her way is an army of brainwashed flying monkeys, a knives for fingers wielding Tin Man, The Fear eating Lion(he literally sucks the fear of his victims) and the Nazi doctor-esque human experimenting Scarecrow - should be easy.

For a young adult novel with a female protagonist this book wasn't that bad. The lead character actually considers the consequence of her actions before doing something and thus does not spend the entire story tangled in easily avoided confrontation and the slight amount of romance is grounded in reality and follows a logical progression. The other nice thing about Amy is she is just an ordinary 16 year old. She is self effacing, (admittedly) not coordinated or athletic and has no real skills. Too often the protagonist in these books are the most special kid in the world and have the exact skill needed to foil the evil set before them.


All in all I must say it wasn't bad for a Young Adult novel. The story flowed well, I enjoyed the characters and it delivered an interesting, new Oz to explore. The author doesn't waste time on repeating sentences and has a good grasp of the English language - or at least a good grasp on a thesaurus. Like I said before I was reminded of American McGee's Alice while proceeding through this tale. If you are a fan of dark, alternate fairy tales then this is something you might want to check out.

The Grimnoir Trilogy - Larry Correia

So this entry is going to be about one of my favorite new authors I have had the pleasure of finding, Mr. Larry Correia. I was looking for an action-y book when I stumbled across a new release by the name of 'Warbound' it's cover featured a guy in a trench coat with a shot gun and a bad ass set of samurai armor.

Being the inquisitive type I decided to look more into the book. I found it was part three of something called the Grimnoir Chronicles. An alternate history saga where around World War I humanity started getting "Magic Powers" with these new weapons we fought the war. WWI had the same outcome as in our timeline but with some changes (i.e. Berlin has become known as 'The Dead City' and it's entire population are now zombies.) The first book, 'Hard Magic' takes place in the 1930's and Japan is gearing up for WWII. Unlike our 'verse Germany leaned it's lesson the first time and is not the driving force (Hitler is actually dead killed by firing squad for his insane theories and trying to cause a revolt.) Japan has been experimenting with it's magic users, grafting magical kanji on their bodies, making elite schools and generally making their army the baddest mofos this side of Saigon and is gearing up in a big way to conquer the world and mold magic in the way they see fit.

What is stopping them? The Grimnoir Society. A group of magic users dedicated to Life, Liberty and... not fascism. The story centers around Jake Sullivan, A 'Heavy' (the term used for people who can control gravity.) though he prefers the term 'Gravity Spiker' (More dignified) A veteran from the first world war and all around tough guy and a young girl named Faye, the most powerful shifter (someone who can teleport like Night Crawler) any of the members have seen. The two get inducted into the order at the start and choose to fight for a better tomorrow.

What follows is some of the best action I have read in a book. Ever. Larry Correia crafts his action with such skill it is impossible to stop this book once you get started. There are ninjas, demons, giant sky scraper length war blimps with country killing Tesla cannons on board (I kid you not) and that's only the first book! This series has something for everyone and doesn't let up from start to finish. If you are a fan of high action with elements of sci-fi. fantasy, and steam punk check it out, you won't be disappointed.

I will feature more of Mr. Correia's work in future posts. But if you read this and want to know another series worth looking for Check out his Monster Hunter series.