The first Raid film was something of a manly masterpiece, it could do no wrong as far as I was concerned. The second installment had something to live up to then, and a lot to lose. I am pleased to report though that it doesn’t disappoint. In fact, I would be so bold as to say it exceeds the original. That film was a pretty simple affair plot wise, sounding dangerously like a computer game, our hero had to fight his way up a building to the highest floor, where some sort of boss character waited. The second film does away with this plot, presumably because it can only really be done once, and relegates the titular raid to the very end of the film, leaving the rest wide open for all sorts of amazing fights in prisons, fights in night clubs, fights in offices, fights in kitchens, fights in car parks, fights in loading bays, fights just about everywhere to be honest … and a car chase. In between all the fightin is a far more involved plot than the first film, which is especially impressive because here we pick up almost immediately after the first installment ended, and are launched into the confusing and dangerous world of crime syndicates, corrupt cops and undercover work that would inevitably follow a raid of such epic proportions as the first film depicts. The only real issue is that it requires slightly more from the viewer in terms of suspension of disbelief. Whereas the first film involved falling through floors, taking people by surprise and generally a whole bunch of improvised weapons, the second film rather assumes that crime syndicates will not, on the whole, have a large stash of automatic weapons laying around, and that the best way of taking people out is not, contrary to popular belief, putting a slug in their dome, but to send large numbers of relatively inept henchmen to fight them to death. None the less, if the only issue with a film is that it wouldn’t really happen like this in the real world, its gotta be a pretty good film.