1) The Raid 2
The Raid was a surprise hit a few years back. The Indonesian martial arts film – directed by a chubby guy from Wales and starring a former truck driver – delivered brutality by the bucketload, melding phenomenal choreography with blistering editing in an orgy of pure, unadulterated badass. There were high hopes when aforementioned Welshman Gareth Evans returned to the fold for a sequel, this time backed by a bigger budget and the good will of martial arts fans everywhere, and boy did he deliver.
Where The Raid was a contained 90 minutes of sparse dialogue and copious violence, The Raid 2 is a sprawling crime epic – but with even more violence. Many of the fight scenes in The Raid were undeniably brilliant, but the pitched battles that punctuate its sequel are peerless. I struggle to think of the last time I saw something this jaw-dropping on celluloid – not to mention that it looks absolutely gorgeous. If The Raid turned things up to 11, its follow-up turns things up to 20, with stunning cinematography, a vast wealth of eccentric characters, picturesque locales and more punches than you could shake a million sticks at. It stands, in this guy’s humble opinion at least, as the greatest action film ever made.
Honorable Mentions (In Alphabetical Order)
- 20,000 Days on Earth
- Coherence
- The Congress
- Enemy
- Foxcatcher
- The Guest
- Joe
- Lilting
- Locke
- Mistaken for Strangers
- Mr Turner
- Nightcrawler
- Only Lovers Left Alive
- The Rover
- The Skeleton Twins
- Song of the Sea
- Still Alice
- Wild
- Wild Tales