News

Hooligans are up to all sorts of impish mayhem in this rote action flick apparently modelled on The Raid

Russia’s hooligan set will have a new Friday-night post-pub favourite with this martial arts film, modelled on Gareth Evans’s The Raid. In a literal hostile takeover, former Spetsnaz sniper Nikita (Ivan Kotik) leads a squad of tracksuited casuals into a vodka factory/mafia front on behalf of a shady businessmen (Ilya Antonenko) looking to seize it – but he also has a personal beef with the owner.

For reasons half-explained, the squad are forbidden from carrying guns, and the chief heavy (played by real-life Mma fighter Vladimir Mineev) chafes against Nikita’s command from the off. They work their way up through the factory’s security to the C-suite, with much fisticuffs, mostly in the fashionable Mma style – with heavy emphasis on grappling and backhanded slaps that look prissy but probably aren’t.

"Russians do not give up." Madman Films in Australia has unveiled an official trailer for a Russian action movie titled Russian Raid, which is one of the most bland titles for an action movie all year. Don't be surprised that this is about a raid, in Russia, because that's pretty much all this is about. Ivan Kotik stars as Nikita, a former Russian Spetsnaz operative, who's hired to neutralize the large private security force at a local factory so that his shady employer can extort the business from the factory owner. But Nikita and his group of highly trained fighters get more than they bargained for when it turns out the factory is actually owned by a dangerous warlord connected to the Russian military. Nikita also reveals he has orchestrated his own secret mission to take personal revenge on the most dangerous man in Russia. Lots of fighting. Also starring Ilya Antonenko,...