i watched iko uwais' first movie too - merantau (2009), also produced/directed by gareth evans. it is not as good the the raid but a star was born.

i like the raid more than raid2 mainly becos there was a great antagonist played by yayan ruhian (another terrific fighter!) who appeared only as a guest star in raid2.

similar shows... i can think of tony jaa's most recent movie, protector2, assuming you have watched all his previous ones incl ong bak and tom-yum-koong series.

lastly, i bumped into this japanese movie black belt (kuro-obi) 2007 and thought it was good. simple story but it does show some real and raw karate, not the "fight for 1 hour" scenes but a few punches and kicks will kill. check it out:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1084019/

This post has been edited by AVFAN: Jul 29 2014, 02:27 AM

undoubtedly. becos iko uwais the protagonist met his match in antagonist yayan ruhian (mad dog) in raid redemption who unfortunately was reduced to a small role as a hobo in raid2 to my disappointment. so, there was really no match fighter for uwais in raid2. looking forward to raid3!!

here... a list of top 30 action asian movies. raid redemption ranked 13 while tony jaa's proctector and ongbak ranked 23-24. #1 is ip man.

i quite agree with the list... i have watched all 30 except 3. will now find them!

besides the most popular ones, i suggest checking out zaitochi (jap), 13 assassins (jap), war of the arrows (kor) and the warrior (kor) - all excellent.

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls050746928/

captain america: winter soldier is good. i give it 4/5. watch it in dts/dtshdma!

besides chris evans and scarlett johannson, there are veterans samuel jackson and robert redford. plus... emily vancamp (from tv series revenge) given her debut to make it big in the movies.

from the epilogue, there will be a 3rd captain america movie, but is not avengers: age of ultron which will also see captain america and black widow back in action.



This post has been edited by AVFAN: Aug 2 2014, 06:46 PM