3/25/21 - Russkiy Reyd (Russian Raid) (2020) - 5-/10
Inspired HEAVILY by the tremendous Gareth Evans Raid series, we get a vodka soaked, kalashnikov wielding, and Cossack dancing Siberian savage take. It lacks the crispness, innovation, and dramatic heft of its namesake, but if you want some hard hitting fist flying action, it delivers well enough.
The fight scenes are pretty well choreographed and feel representatively positive. We mostly get high octane mma inspired fisticuffs, but our protagonist brings more to the table. This former soldat looking for rejustivenge mixes aikido, ballet, and various other martial disciplines into a smooth misdirectional melee. The character may be one-note, but the violence isn’t.
There is not much to the “infiltrate the facility and engage in martial hostile takeover until true baddie shows up for final confrontation” plot. Everything is surface level and mechanical for the story. I do give them points for setting up the “no guns” and stressing the “no kill”, at least for a while. Misdemeanors and not felonies for the fun. Makes sense. I also approve of when death does visit the situation, it actually meant something. That is quickly thrown aside, but for a moment, the film stops for it. The militaristic tactics and techniques at least looked legitimate.
I don’t see the charisma of Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Uko Iwais, or scott Adkins here, but Ivan Kotik gets his job done. There is pretty much non-stop fighting which is why you chose this film in the first place. It isn’t reinventing the roundhouse, but it savagely sambas to fulfillment.
