Special Delivery

Story and characters are all cardboard cut-outs, but fine, I chose this movie because I wanted to see some nice car pursuits and unfortunately it did not deliver on that front either. All the action was serviceable but not very exciting. For one: the first action scenes are a bit VFX heavy, like the drift parking, the train or other near collisions. The CG takes the wind out of the sails of a good car stunt in my opinion, so it wasn't the best choice to start with. The other reason is that there aren't any memorable moments in the car chases, they lack rythm, tension or a satisfying climax. They should have watched a movie like THE DRIVER (1978) or THE SEVEN-UPS (1973) to learn how to create tension (advantages / disadvantages). There is one brief car action in a parking house which was ok, but the ending is ripped off from DRIVE (2011), I guess it's a hommage since the villain car is exactly the same to the one in Drive from the highway chase. There were quite a few scenes that seemed to be lifted from DRIVE without any of the energy, but I'm not getting into that. Hell, Jackie Chan's Thunderbolt (1995) was a mediocre movie too, but the car stunts at least delivered. At the heart of this movie is the growing friendship between the loner Eun-ha and a kid. Now, we've seen this constellation million times before, that is not the problem here. But at the end of the day it has to be believable and at least mildly interesting. Needless to say that wasn't really the case and I was mostly bored with the characters and the story. The only outstanding thing I can remember is the performance by Heo Dong-won. He's the main antagonist and makes such weird acting choices, especially his laugh which is more like a repressed tick than an actual laugh. He's the only one that provides some fun,and everytime he's on-screen the movie becomes alive for hot minute. The downside is that he sometimes comes off less menacing in some scenes. 4 out of 10.

Park So Dam of Parasite fame seems an unlikely action hero with her small sweet persona but she does a great job as a North Korean defector driver and delivery person with some skills and the direction is good and the story brisk. Liked the pace and flow doesn't get irritating or lag like some action shows. Feel good. From car chases to fighting it's all handled well. There is a likeability that keeps her and the kid sympathetic characters. The villain seems unnecessarily obsessed with them though. Hardly worth chasing them to that extent. The ending could have shown how she escaped even though you know she would.