This week, German distributor Koch Media has released The Raid 2: Berandal on Blu-ray. That in itself may not be a world-shattering fact, as the film is available pretty much everywhere by now. What IS rather special though is that the Germans chose to also release an Ultimate Edition, same as they did with the original The Raid: Redemption almost two years ago.
Both of these Ultimate Editions are worthy of the title. The releases are multi-disc monstrosities, the films shown in totally uncensored bone-crunching glory, their boxes filled to the brim with physical goodies as well as plentiful on-disc extras.
So it's time to put both of these in the limelight a bit! Check out the gallery below, and you can flick through the images by clicking the edge of them, or sometimes get a bigger version by clicking at the center of them.
Full Disclosure: Our very own Todd Brown was attached to both of these films as an executive producer. However, he had no hand in creating these two German editions, nor did he have anything to do with the writing or editing of this article.
And here they are, side by side. Both boxes are hard cardboard, covered in black textile with glittery stuff embossed in it. Very, very cool.
Starting with the first The Raid.
This box is the bigger of the two, as it includes a thicker book and the digi-pak holds six discs.
The box, opened. Not much air in this one...
The contents, removed: the digi-pak disc-holder, the double poster, a pack of postcards, and the graphic novel.
All contents, opened.
The six discs contain a DVD with bonus content, a CD of the Shinoda/Trapanese soundtrack, and the different versions of the film on DVD and Blu-ray. These versions include the US cut with the Shinoda/Trapanese soundtrack, and the original Indonesian cut with the Prayogi/Yuskemal soundtrack. Both come with German and original dubs, and optional German subtitles. The US cut includes a commentary track by Gareth Evans. All known extras are included too.
A closer look at the graphic novel. It is a 120-page hardcover, in German.
A peek inside the graphic novel.
A look at the reverse side of the poster and digi-pak.
Moving on to The Raid 2: Berandal...
As a sidenote, the ugly ratings stickers on these boxes are exactly that: easy to remove stickers. Great!
The box, opened. Not much air in this one either.
The contents, removed: the digi-pak disc-holder, the double poster, a pack of postcards, and a production booklet.
All contents, opened.
The four discs contain a DVD with bonus content, a CD of the soundtrack, and the most uncut version of the film I've ever seen on DVD and Blu-ray. The film comes with German and original dubs, and optional German subtitles.
A closer look at the 40-page production booklet. Not the thickest of its kind, but it does contains a lot of information (in German).
A look at the reverse side of the poster and digi-pak.
The end(s).
Both editions are limited and numbered to 5,000 each.