Welsh director Gareth Evans does a wonderful job in this Indonesian martial arts movie, a brutal and bleak survival film about a squad of police men who try to raid a crimelord's den and find themselves trapped as they are ambushed by his henchmen. Inside a bleak apartment block they have to fight men inside whilst avoiding fire from snipers positioned in the surrounding buildings. Many of the actors in the police squad were sent to military boot-camp to learn how to use weapons and plan strategic attacks to add to the realism.
The martial arts fights are incredible to watch and realistically choreographed whilst there is plenty of tension to go along with the action. It is constantly engrossing and limits the dead time that just fills so many Hollywood movies these days, unfortunately there is already an American remake in the pipeline which I'm sure will be heavy on the action but lack the tension and drama of the original.
The film is more survival action movie as the claustrophobic nature of trying to escape the building the police are raiding leaves them with few options for escape. When people mention Indonesia you don't envisage cloudy skies and a battle fought in a dilapidated apartment block but the bleakness is another great quality.
3.5/4 superbly crafted martial arts movie
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