Russian Raid | Blu-ray (Well Go USA)
RELEASE DATE: March 9, 2021
Denis Kryuchkov’s debut feature, Russian Raid – a Russian production inspired by Gareth Evans’ 2011 cult martial arts hit The Raid (what action movie isn’t?) – will finally be getting U.S. release on Digital & Blu-ray on March 9, 2021 from Well Go USA.
Long after the murder of his father—a secret agent killed in a missile factory raid—former special forces operative Nikita (played by renowned stuntman Ivan Kotik) returns to Russia as a mercenary. He leads an elite team on a top-dollar heist targeting the same facility, but no one else knows his true objective is revenge.
The film also stars Powerlifting world record holder Kirill Sarychev, world heavyweight kickboxing champion Vladimir Mineev, as well as “the best-known MMA fighters in Russia”.
Don’t miss the film’s U.S. Trailer below:
I will gladly watch this, but hopefully Well Go USA does not butcher this release like they did with the previous Russian action film, “T-34”.
I originally bought T-34 from Amazon, but then had to return it when I realized that Well Go stripped a ton of footage out of the movie, somewhere to the tune of 30 minutes worth. I considered importing a disc directly from Russia instead, but it sadly would not have included English subtitles. Eventually I ended up acquiring the film from less-than-legitimate sources in order to get everything I wanted.
I am not sure why they would do this. I’ve been tempted to reach out to Well Go and ask, but they do a considerably poor job of interacting with the community and I doubt I’d get any sufficient answers. This isn’t the 80’s or 90’s anymore, we shouldn’t be editing movies in dozens of different ways to appeal to different markets. People who love films will always want to see the “proper” version of the film.
That’s interesting. I never figured Well Go would do such things.
Russian Raid does look interesting even though the fight choreography seems a bit slower. I guess not every Russian director is like Timur Bekmambetov.
Right? You would think that Well Go is better than to desecrate a foreign film. Apparently not that time. Hopefully they don’t do it again.
Maybe the treatment of ‘T-34’ was Well Go USA’s subtle revenge for “Russian interference” in the US elections. You mess with our elections, we mess with your movies. 😛
On a more serious note, for a lot of unintentional comedy and some decent bursts of action, check out the 1992 Russian action flick ‘Red Mob’ which was released by Vinegar Syndrome a couple of years back.
What a coincidence. Just as this movie is coming up again, I finally got around to viewing “Red Mob” with some friends during our (online) movie night last Saturday.
The VS disc comes with both English and Russian language options. We opted to watch the original Russian version, mainly because the English dub is so utterly abhorrent (even by “casual movie night with friends” standards).
It’s a mess of a movie for sure, but there’s definitely some entertainment value to be had. At the very least, everyone agreed that the crazy helicopter maneuvers in the final scene were a spectacle on their own.
Really I just wanted to watch the movie as a historical novelty. It seems like a fascinating historical footnote in the world of cinema, and yet, it’s extremely under-the-radar (only 2 reviews on IMDB?). The fact that some Russian filmmakers came together after the fall of the soviet union and said “oh shit we can actually make movies like this now”, and then proceeded to make something as incomprehensible and bizarre as “Red Mob”, is both hilarious and amazing.