Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Jake Coyle, Associated Press: "The Raid: Redemption" will offer a full meal to action-starved moviegoers, but strike most others as -- for all its athletic dynamism -- lacking nutrition. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: As midnight-movie mash-ups go, it's pretty amazing. Read more
Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Grindingly monotonous, a blur of thudding body blows. Read more
David Fear, Time Out: For now, Evans can take pride in the fact that he's set the bar for cinemayhem impossibly high. Read more
Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: Raw, rough and relentless, it just keeps coming at you. Read more
Noel Murray, AV Club: Watch any given 15 minutes of The Raid and you've pretty much seen The Raid. But why the hell would you only watch 15 minutes? Read more
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Evans doesn't bother much with story or character development, instead making his film a kind of brutal ballet. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: I love that a film this gory secured the same Motion Picture Association of America rating as "The King's Speech." Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Extraordinary stunt and fight work and nonstop excitement, but a warning to those who are at all squeamish: this may be the most violent movie I've ever seen. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: "The Raid: Redemption" is sheer action ecstasy. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: [It] makes The Expendables look like 12 Angry Men. Read more
Eric D. Snider, Film.com: The movie gets a little slow when it settles down for some routine dialogue or plot development, but it's never more than a couple minutes before break time is over and it's back to the insane fighting stunts. Read more
Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: A slam-bang, knock-your-socks-off action bonanza with some of the most peerlessly shot, performed and choreographed fight sequences you're likely to see on screen. Read more
Bruce Diones, New Yorker: The movie is a gory free-for-all, a horror film dressed up as an action film, and it's as pure a shot of adrenaline as any Tarantino fan could wish for. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The entire thing is so vague, at times it feels like a sequel to a movie we never saw; surely, there's something we're missing here, right, some backstory we're supposed to have? Read more
Mark Jenkins, NPR: This electrifying movie isn't just a collection of gory moments. It actually goes somewhere. Read more
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: It's exhausting but exhilarating. Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The action is brutal, bloody and virtually nonstop in this adrenaline-packed riff on "Assault on Precinct 13.'' Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Because Welsh-born director Gareth Evans has an especially good understanding of how to choreograph and stage the fight scenes, this comes across as a viscerally enjoyable experience. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I am dismayed. I have no prejudice against violence when I find it in a well-made film. But this film is almost brutally cynical in its approach. Read more
David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle: It's claustrophobic, tense, ultraviolent -- and fun. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film is a sort of high-speed demolition derby except with human actors. It is 100 percent highly concentrated whoop-ass, and it is sensational. Read more
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The Raid: Redemption" is built on shaky and blood-soaked ground, but if towering technique is all you want from an action movie, then yippee-ki-yay. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: After too many bloated Hollywood spectacles, the joltingly energetic The Raid: Redemption feels like an action film distilled to its essence. Read more
Tom Huddleston, Time Out: For now, count 'The Raid' alongside the likes of Peter Jackson's 'Bad Taste' or Guillermo del Toro's 'Mimic': a talented young filmmaker flexing his muscles, stating his intent, and promising better things in the future. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It's a surge of adrenaline that connects a strong protagonist and story to martial arts moves - traditional Indonesian silat - that are well beyond business as usual. Read more
Scott Bowles, USA Today: Unapologetically brutal and unencumbered by much plot, Raid is the year's most turbo-charged film, an Indonesian martial-arts movie that ups the violence by giving its characters a modern-day worldview - and weaponry. Read more
Robert Koehler, Variety: It's easy to forget the story altogether in the sheer rush of Rama's fight to the top floor; instead, viewers will wonder how the amazing battle that just ended could possibly be topped. But it is, again and again. Read more
Ernest Hardy, Village Voice: Lean, fast-moving, and filled with game-changing fight sequences that have a brutally beautiful (or beautifully brutal) quality, Gareth Evans's Indonesian martial-arts film The Raid: Redemption lives up to its viral hype. Read more
Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: The Raid, about as pure an action film as you're ever likely to see, wants to have its cake and eat it, too. It does. Read more
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The hardest-working guy on this film had to be the foley artist, the technician responsible for figuring out what it sounds like to have both knees and elbows snapped, in rapid succession. Read more