I can definitely see the cult potential of this movie but is the actual movie itself being that good? Not really.
Of course it's a very entertaining movie to watch but also a real simple and shallow one. It isn't being that terribly clever with its story and it mostly purely relies on its main concept of having a bunch of anarchist youngsters taking over a gas station, holding employees and costumers prisoned, while a whole bunch of other crazy stuff is happening. And yes, the concept of the movie does make this movie fun but in terms of being a comedy, this movie really isn't being clever or even funny enough.
The movie doesn't do a very good job with fleshing out its characters or making them interesting or compelling ones. It makes the whole movie a quite distant one to watch and it also turns it a bit into a long sit, even though the movie itself is just under 2 hours, so nothing that long in itself actually.
The story itself just doesn't ever take the trouble to take itself serious or believable. This is of course the right approach for a comedy of this sort to take but it actually more often comes across as some lazy writing. Seriously, these guys didn't even had real weapons but yet nobody attempts seriously to escape, even though the numbers are being heavily in their favor. And sometimes characters just disappear out of the story or add nothing to it at all. In the end, the movie does feel like an ultimately pointless one.
It was also obviously a quite cheap movie to make, which can mostly been seen back in the entire way and style the movie got shot in. Most of the people involved with this movie come across as talented ones but they still made tons of mistakes with this movie. At multiple times throughout the movie its clearly getting day, while the entire movie is supposed to be set during one night and it shouldn't be in the morning till at the very end of the movie.
So plenty of criticism about this movie, yet it was still one that I enjoyed watching. Despite everything, I regard this movie as a perfect one to kill some time with. It doesn't stand out in any way but it at least is something unlike anything else. Despite that the movie is not being really clever with its story or concept, it's still being an original movie to watch. This of course has also everything to do with the fact that you are watching a South Korean movie here, so it's unlike anything else that you would usually watch or would expect to see (unless you are Korean yourself of course). And yes, there are also definitely being some good and fun moments in this movie, that help to make it an entertaining one to watch.
But in truth the movie did really seem to have far more potential in it. It seemed to try to make some statement regarding human/group behavior and it almost seemed to me as if it was going for a "A Clockwork Orange" done more comedy-style, like approach. Needless to say that the movie does not really work out as a social commentary but does this take away any of the fun of this movie? I think not.
6/10
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