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.

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.