The Raid: Redemption Remake Loses Star, Director, and Studio

[Secondhand Revenant]

This may be the only smart career decision that Taylor Kitsch has made since "Friday Night Lights" ended.

Anyway, loved both Raid movies (saw them both in theaters) and I agree, the idea of doing a Western remake (especially considering how ludicrously simple Raid's plot is) is just plain dumb, but Christ, the butt-hurt over this is hysterical.

Bollywood remakes Hollywood movies so frequently it's become something of a running gag, but I don't hear anyone saying "hurr durr, Indians don't wanna read subtitles and can't stand to see non-Indian actors in their movies, they are so dumb, hurr durr".

Did it ever cross your mind that it might be because we don't see them here? It's not like those Bollywood movies are being made for us in the US. The other is. Which do you really think we'd be aware of to say anything about or even have much reason to comment on? The one marketed to our countries or the one marketed to India?

Then it's even more hilarious, because they're only showing their own ignorance of what's going on outside their borders while trying to make fun of others for not being 'aware' enough of what's going on outside their borders.

It's hilarious if people are annoyed by it and someone else on the other side of the world does it to? Is it somehow supposed to be less annoying or dumb? They aren't even trying to make fun of someone for not being aware of stuff outside their borders. People are mocking the idea that a martial arts film that's apparently mostly action needs to be remade for Americans

 

[Artorius]

I thought The Raid did get release to the West? Even then I had no problem watching it with English subtitles.

Also Hollywood should learn by now that western remake of asian films are nowhere near superior to the original source-

Old Boy
My Sassy Girl
Il Mare/ The Lake House
Ring

you forgot
Infernal affairs/ The Departed

honestly IA was better than the Departed by miles IMHO.

 

[Metalrocks]

the raid is unique in its own way and doesnt need any americanized version of it. they will do more wrong than right. are people really that stupid and unable to read some subtitles?
i havent seen in any movie such realistic fight scenes as the raid. and im not even a martial arts fan and i enjoyed the raid 1 and 2 a lot. hell, was even one of the reasons i started to do kickboxing.
and as many have stated: we have dredd. and this was really damn good too. just no martial arts but at least close enough to the comics.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Sigh... Well good thing I have them both on Bluray (and Dredd), so I will just keep my fingers in my ears from now on...
Speaking of the Indonesian language version, Cracked did a REALLLLY funny article on watching the movie with fansubs. Those where SO bad... it's just too hilarious for words.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I'm curious; where the merry hell would they have set this hypothetical remake?

Spoiler

One of the main plot points is that Rama is one of the few honest cops in the department since the titular raid was arranged off the books by a crooked cop in up to his eyebrows with the crime lord who ran the slum.

I just can't see anywhere in modern America where an entire SWAT team can be basically massacred by a gang of crims in a slum without it attracting the attention of every other SWAT team in the state, the media and if shit got super real and they decided to upgrade said gang from 'criminals' to 'terrorists', presumably federal or military counter terrorism units.

So yeah, better the direct remake remain deader than Julius Caesar and those who want a similar film can watch Dredd. That said, step outside the zone a bit and watch The Raid anyway - the story is so simple you probably don't need the subtitles since you can largely infer what's going by the tone of the scene and the way the characters talk to one another.

So I leave you with this:

 

[D3s_ToD3s]

So. People dont uderstand, why they're not just dubing the original for a wide re-release.

To give you the only reason necessary: Money!

Sure they would make a pile of money with a tiny investment. But who would win that way? So instead, they do the usual thing, call for a remake, invest millions, and bet on multiplying that amount with a country wide and international remake-release. It doesn't matter if the film is shit or not. It sells on the good name "The Raid" alone. And if the movie IS bad, they cann blame the original for not having much substance and wash their hands in all the money they made.

They can overinflate budgets, place products and film in locations like the ihop. Everyone wins! (except for the audience, but who cares about them? They already paid)

 

[BakedZnake]

Is it weird to say The Raid was kinda inspired by the late great Bruce Lee's unfinished project The game of death?

 

[Chester Rabbit]

How has no one posted the Kitchen Fight from the second movie yet as an example for how without this director and these actors, this would be a terrible idea.
Also, Wesley Snipes or Jason Statham as the lead character or BUST!

 

[theSovietConnection]

I also wonder why The Raid got the subtitle over here, it really doesn't need anymore in the title than it's title, which is just The Raid.

I remember reading in an interview somewhere it had something to do with a bunch of Hollywood red tape nonsense. They wanted to call it just The Raid, but couldn't get clearance for that title, so they had to add the Redemption subtitle to it. Even Sony couldn't get whoever it was that was holding them up to clear the name.

On-topic, I really don't see this as a movie that needed a remake, for how thin the plot really was. So I can't say I'm terribly saddened to see the remake get canned.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I just can't see anywhere in modern America where an entire SWAT team can be basically massacred by a gang of crims in a slum without it attracting the attention of every other SWAT team in the state, the media and if shit got super real and they decided to upgrade said gang from 'criminals' to 'terrorists', presumably federal or military counter terrorism units.

Detroit would be the only one I could really think of. I mean, no one really batted an eye in "Assault on Precinct 13" when it was an entire department of crooked Detroit Cops, and there are huge chunks of Detroit that are essentially abandoned now, so it would be realistic to imagine a high-rise that is completely controlled by a Gang.

Regardless, please let this remake die while it still has some dignity to spare.

SNIP

Yes, but my point is that people are attempting to use this as some sort of condemnation of American culture, while completely ignoring the fact that it's done all the time by a different culture, but I guess you don't get smug elitist points for making fun of Indian culture and Bollywood.

 

[Zydrate]

This will be one of the few times where I'd have seen the source material before the actual remake. I never saw the original Old Boy or Ring, and so on.
So I'll be watching an American remake of the Raid (I've seen both of them with subtitles) and see how ours holds up (It probably won't).

 

[Metalrocks]

How has no one posted the Kitchen Fight from the second movie yet as an example for how without this director and these actors, this would be a terrible idea.
Also, Wesley Snipes or Jason Statham as the lead character or BUST!

that is indeed an amazing fight scenes as well. already the fight before that was awesome too. generally the appearance of the baseball guy and hammer girl have also an impressive and unforgettable scenes.

 

[Chaos Marine]

This may be the only smart career decision that Taylor Kitsch has made since "Friday Night Lights" ended.

Anyway, loved both Raid movies (saw them both in theaters) and I agree, the idea of doing a Western remake (especially considering how ludicrously simple Raid's plot is) is just plain dumb, but Christ, the butt-hurt over this is hysterical.

Bollywood remakes Hollywood movies so frequently it's become something of a running gag, but I don't hear anyone saying "hurr durr, Indians don't wanna read subtitles and can't stand to see non-Indian actors in their movies, they are so dumb, hurr durr".

A lot of countries have made remakes of US movies because their people simply don't have any access to those movies. Yet the US could very easily import foreign movies but people from the US insist on changing everything to having the US as the centre of the universe. Because the US is the world, according to the US anyway.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Because the US is the world, according to the US anyway.

So you speak for 320,000,000 people? Good to know, I'll shoot you a message if I need a restaurant recommendation.

 

[Grabehn]

First thought: Wait, but we already have an English version of The Raid; Dredd.

Second thought: Are people really so hostile to the idea of watching a foreign films they need them to be remade in English?

Not so much "hostile" as "it doesn't really go well with the US masses", which has always been funny to me because most other countries that don't speak English tend to get subtitled versions, unless they're kids movies or really popular material. The last two most often getting dubs.