The Raid 2

All of a sudden they care about story?? The best thing about The Raid: Redemption is that concern about the story is minimal so the filmmakers can carry on with the innovative ass-kickings. But here, there are lengthy dialogues with gangsters posturing. In English, in a Scorsese movie, this would be fine. But in Indonesian? I was bored out of my mind. It’s 140 minutes long! Big fight scenes eventually take over, but it’s too little too late. So I was disappointed. My advice: watch The Raid: Redemption again and skip this one.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Comedy directors the Russo Brothers crush it, delivering a solid comic-book adventure and parable about preemptive crime-fighting and modern day privacy. In a lot of ways, Steve Rogers, frozen in time for all those years, is the best kind of character to explore these issues as he tries to understand the modern technology that we take for granted. Filmmakers give the audience plenty of treats along the way: Action scenes, old fashioned car chases, Easter eggs from the Marvel universe and, of course, lots of fighting. Steve sure knows a lot of Kung Fu for a guy who only seems to box at the gym. Although there aren’t a lot of surprises, there is a lot of suspense thanks to some tight editing and keen performances by the supporting cast. As a kid, I never cared about Captain America as a superhero. He was too square. But now, with anti-heroes and grey areas taking over the zeitgeist, it’s nice to see a good guy with the strength of his own convictions fighting evil.