It’s not fancy, but it serves the film and action well, driving home how physically talented the performers are. Kryuchkova keeps the camera at a distance and lets the audience take it all in.
In a single shot, we see an entire cafeteria engulphed in fisticuffs, multiple fights going on at the same time in different planes, bodies flying everywhere. The detail and intricacies lie in the staging and choreography, not the cinematography. Director Denis Kryuchkova takes an unobtrusive visual approach. Russian Raid isn’t a frantic mishmash of hyper-stylized action full of lightning cuts. Fortunately, the action continues to be outstanding and pushes the pace over any narrative hiccups or snares. There are superfluous personal connections to this warehouse, along with a subplot about a woman (Sofya Ozerova) who works at the factory but has her own reasons for being there-she primarily serves to provide the barest hint of a potential romantic connection. It’s also where unnecessary narrative threads start to weigh heavy. Here the plot get even more convoluted and character’s motivations seem out of step with their established personalities, such as they are. At one point there’s an almost eight-minute sword and axe fight-one of the security guards just happens to be a weapons enthusiast with an extensive at-work collection of blades and clubs and whatnot. There are elaborate, intricately choreographed brawls throughout the factory, fists and feet and elbows flying. As a result, it’s just a bunch of gnarly Russian dudes pounding one another into oblivion. That’s why Russian Raid exists, and that’s why it’s fun as hell to watch.įor the first half of the movie, there’s a handy plot device about how no one has any guns. Outside of the fact that everyone beats the ever-loving crap out of everyone else. Beyond a passing sense of curiosity, there’s no real reason to be interested in any of these people. A sense of revenge and justice drives Nikita, and that’s as deep as his personality goes outside of a few quick flashbacks to him dancing with his grandpa as a child. All cloaked in some insane, over-the-top maniac action. Things unravel even further as various factions arrive on the scene, unlikely alliances form, loyalties shift, and hidden agendas emerge. The goons are cocky and undisciplined and it turns out the factory is a front, one owned by a vicious warlord.
A nefarious businessman hires him to lead a gang of thugs to take out the security force at a former missile factory, which now manufactures vodka, so the businessman can engage in a very hostile takeover. Nikita (Ivan Kotik), is a soldier-turned-mercenary. Supposedly inspired by Gareth Evans’ The Raid, the plot roughly follows that template. Last year brought us Why Don’t You Just Die! and because there’s always room for more, now we have Russian Raid to gawk at and kick us in the face. Whether or not that’s true, there’s clearly some stuff going on in Russia right now. It’s been said that the craziest action movies from around the globe come from the places with the least regulation, thus the most freedom for performers to do insane things that are probably way, way too dangerous to actually attempt.
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