Kwik

Adrenaline Rush opens with a bang (in many ways) as we are introduced to their leader, legendary biker Gi-Soo, a handsome, cool and moody tween with no regard for rules. Behind him is Chun-Sim - an old girlfriend who is trying to keep up on her moped and in tears at the thought of him with another woman. Behind her - Kim Myeong-Sik tries to keep up as he screams out her name, pushing his Papa Johns Pizza delivery bike to its limits!

As they run a red light, all hell breaks loose causing a massive traffic collision that sends Chun Sim sliding under an oil tanker. Concerned for his ex, Gi-Soo zooms up an overturned car and jumps it - just as the tank explodes...

If you aren't already laughing by this point of the film, you may as well give up. I'm a huge fan of Adrenaline Rush with its daft humour and madcap action scenes. Its like a Fast N Furious movie directed by Chow Sing Chi!

Some time passes by the time the title card shows, and Gi-Soo is working as a courier on his motorbike. He seems slightly wiser, and a little more mature and gets a call for about his next collection which leads him back to Chun-Sim. Now a big star singer of a girl band, Chun-Sim gets on the back and claims his helmet. Suddenly, things take a turn for the worst as a mysterious call reveals a bomb is in the headgear, and will explode if she removes it or if they separate more than 10 feet (due to the hi-tec wrist watch he wears). Their mission begins, to start making deliveries for the mysterious caller - most of which turn out to be more bombs! Unfortunately, Chun-Sim has a concert to do first with her girl group, which she does, while still wearing her helmet resulting in some hilarious moments as they try to stay close.

Adrenaline Rush is just mental!! It goes 100mph and hardly lets up from its great action and chase scenes - incorporating some smart CGI for its wilder shots and moments - and is ridiculously funny on many levels. Ye-Won Kang is just hilarious as Chun-Sim - and the cute Min-Ki Lee does a great job as Gi-Soo. Both actors work so well together and had preciously shared the screen in the 2009 Korean disaster flick, Tidal Wave, as did In-Kwon Kim who plays the trainee-cop determined to stop Gi-Soo and win the heart of Chun-Sim!

Incidentally - this was made by the very same producers behind Tidal Wave also.

As the madness continues, more and more crazy action fills the screen, more twists in the plot are revealed, and Gi-Soo's love is put to the test when Chun-Sim (complete with a bomb strapped to her) becomes a hostage resulting in a climax on a speeding train. I'll not give away too much more, but I did like how the bad guy had a genuine reason for being pissed off in the end...

This UK release of Adrenaline Rush races in at 80 minutes. The original Korean cut is listed at 1 hour and 55 minutes, so I'd like to see what a difference that makes to the whole feel of the film. As it stands, this is probably the most fun I've had in 80 minutes in a long time, and I loved it. Be sure to stick around for some NG's and making of shots during the end credits for some interesting stunts and bike work.

Overall: Adrenaline Rush is wild, wacky and a lot of fun!!

When I purchased this movie from Amazon, I hadn't expected to be in for such a great treat. This movie was simply amazing, it had comedy, it had action, it had fast pace and wits, and also a good storyline.

"Adrenaline Rush" as it is amply titled on the English cover is a great action comedy about a bike-delivery guy getting trapped on his motorbike with his ex-girlfriend, as a bomb is threatening to kill them bomb. In order to stay alive, they have to make explosive deliveries in a certain amount of time. But as if the bomb wasn't enough to threaten their lives, their turbulent past and personalities also threaten to have them at each others throats.

This movie is fast paced and has just the right amount of comedy in it without making it become strained and too much to bear witness to. The action and driving sequences in the movie were nicely shot and well executed. And the chemistry between Min-ki Lee (playing Han Gi-soo) and Ye-won Kang (playing Ah-rom) was just off the charts. These two really carried the movie such a long way.

If you enjoy Korean movies, then "Kwik" (aka "Adrenaline Rush") is one not to be missed. For fans of "Speed" and "The Transporter".

The version I watched while in the original Korean language has been cut down to 80m and it shows.

OK, so it's not the most densely plotted film but the edits take a lot of the exposition away, characters suddenly join the chase scenes with no clue as to how.

It's still a fun film but I'd much rather it made sense!.

This is a fast paced and action packed movie from start to finish and is also engaging from start to finish. Judging by the trailer I was expecting a movie that is lazy and didn't have as much action and explosions as the trailer made it seem. But this is one of those movies where it surpasses the trailer and goes beyond. The comedic elements are done right and the right moments to the point I couldn't help but have a grin on my face while watching and some parts got me laughing. Sure this movie is absurd and over the top but that is the direction it's trying to go and it knows which direction it wants to head and it works. The actress Kang Hye-Won is not just a pretty face but she is a good actress that can pull off comedic roles such as the one in this. Even the action sequences are done very well for a movie that is made outside of Hollywood and I was impressed, especially with the CGI scenes. This movie reminded me of a comedic and over the top version of the movies "Speed" and "Transporter 3". So this movie is almost a perfect blend of action and slapstick comedy that is so very entertaining from start to finish.

8.2/10

The producers of the Korean disaster movie Haeundae probably had enough of water and massive flooding in their blockbuster film, that they had turned their sights and efforts into making an action adventure that's just the opposite, this time playing with fire and bombs in an action comedy that at first glance looked very much like Jan de Bont's Speed starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. But save for some slight narrative references, Quick is very much its own film, with impressive bike and vehicular stunts in addition to the typical Korean sprawling narrative that expands it beyond a simplistic chase film.

Quick begins with a prologue about a love triangle gone awry. Super cool biker Ki-Soo (Lee Min-Ki) is seen leading a pack of mean bikers down a road during the Independence Day holiday and is nonchalant to the pursuit of Choon-Sim (Kang Hye-Won) his girlfriend whom he's trying to dump, who in turn is being chased on a bike by another suitor Myung-Sik (Kim In-Kwon). The scene ends with one big mess of an accident and pile up that leave things unresolved, and the events here will have its repercussions some six years later where the film proper picks up.

Ki-Soo has become a bike courier, putting his skills to legitimate use in order to earn a living. Choon-Sim is now one part of a massive Korean K-pop all girls group (like so many out there) and unknowingly hires Ki-Soo's services to get her from one location to another. However a switch of a helmet was made, one that contains a bomb, and soon both Ki-Soo and Choon- Sim find themselves held ransom by an anonymous bomber who communicates with them through a mobile device - that they are to deliver bombs to designated spots within 30 minutes each mission, and should they fail, or alert the cops, or remove the helmet, or do anything that's detrimental to their mission, they'll get blown up. So begins a madcap race around town to perform the dastardly deeds, and for Myung-Sik, now a traffic cop, sort of engaged as well to bring them to justice.

Narratively this may seem like Speed, with its bomber dictating the terms that the couple have got to go through, and wielding tremendous power over his hostages to do his bidding. And the final act was really quite like the Hollywood film with it taking place on a train and Choon-Sim vested up with an improvised explosive device. But what you have to tip your hat to, is the story writers having to tie up all the loose ends in order not to make the selection of victims quite random, as well as managing an all out gang land rivalry that's taking place beneath all the bombings, leaving you guessing just who the perpetrator might really be.

And in true Korean movie style, as previously discussed with screenwriter Lee Shin-Ho, Quick has its plate full of bumbling police officers who get outwitted and snooked almost every step of the way, right down to lean and mean SWAT members being anything but capable of addressing the simplest of threats and orders, leaving it open to plenty of slapstick comedy situations. And the genuinely funny moments in the film don't even have to try too hard to bring on the laughs, with most of the cast being adapt to perfecting their respective comic timing for maximum effect.

But what truly stood out are the countless of motorcycle and vehicle stunts that pepper the film landscape, since this is after all touted as an action film first and foremost, and has enough meticulously designed sequences to thrill. The outtakes provide a glimpse at what was practical stunts involving daring stuntpeople who risked life and limb to make the death defying stunts believable, leaving the rest of the more hokey aspects to computer generated images. Unfortunately for the filmmakers with experience in dealing with spectacular special effects, it seemed their touch of experience got lost here, with efforts drawing too much attention to themselves with a constant over-exposure of scenes that betrayed a probable studio or soundstage setting, coupled with some CGI that were left quite unrefined that they stood out quite obviously like a sore thumb.

Quick, despite its flaws, still had enough in its tank to entertaining an audience out for a light hearted action adventure spectacle that don't cometo our screens too often these days, and story and funnier bits to thank for making the film that way.