Cheong-nyeon-gyeong-chal

I'll keep it short with my review. This movie made me laugh so hard i had tears in my eyes. The chemistry between the two lead actors is amazing, just spot on. The story is very simple and easy to follow. The pace and lenght of the movie is solid. It has action and a bit of drama but the comedy/humour people.. so much fun, and therefore really enjoyable to watch. Just sit down, relax and 'laugh'. What more do you need.

Did not except this one to be that good. The story started with a comedy, with two friends bonding over their years in police accademy and proceded with mystery solving after they bomped into a case and finally we've got some action and drama as well. So, midnight runners has everything. The story is really good itself and along with the performances, really helped it achieve the entertainment level it needed to be successful. Overall, worth trying.

Entertaining buddy-cop action flicks have not been lighting up the screens for some time. In comes Midnight Runners which tweaks the well-trodden formula and the result is one crackerjack of a super-fun thriller. So far this year, no other movies have made me laugh so heartily.

Gi Jun (Park Seo Jun), aka Mr Action, and Kang Hee Yeol (Kang Ha Neul), Mr Germophobe-Bookworm, are two best friends at the Korean National Police University. They accidentally witness a young woman getting abducted and decide to work together to investigate it because they have learnt that time is of the essence in cases like this – even when they get tied up in red tape and find out they could be expelled.

Buddy-cop action thrillers tend to rely heavily on counterpoints to draw the two main characters – one fit, one fat (21 Jump Street), one full of action, one wisecracker (48 Hours), one nuts, one down-to-earth (Lethal Weapon). All three became lucrative franchises so you know the studios don't like to mess with the formula much. Midnight Runners doesn't re-invent the buddy-cop wheel, but tweaks it just a little, making the movie stand out like a bed of roses. It doesn't lean on counterpoints to build camaraderie. They may be opposites in certain ways, but it is the passion for doing what is right that unites them. The screen-time is devoted equally on both of them and no one tries to out- play the other. They are the perfect duo; they are one even though they are not the same. Their chemistry is undoubtedly inflatable and infectious, and they seem like they are having a blast.

Sometimes in my classes I get kids asking me dreaded questions like "What is the point of learning Calculus?" or "Am I going to use any of these stuff in life?". Midnight Runners addresses that in one pivotal scene that had me guffawing in laughter. I enjoyed the scenes of them using what they have learnt to crack the case. Writer-director Kim Joo Hwan even skewers the upper echelons of the police force and iterates the true purpose education itself in a noteworthy scene. How Kim deftly balances the dark crime with a light tone and ponderous moments is a magical act. It helps when you have such winsome characters. I think the best praise I can give it is that I sincerely hope there is a sequel in the works. Make it happen…. please.

A wonderful buddy comedy that boasts not just a great central duo, but also an impressive control of tone, as the chemistry between characters work well. If you are looking for good entertainment, but also crave serious stakes and thus action with real weight to it, this is the film to watch.

Finally a break from the relenting string of dark, gruesome, violent movies from S. Korea! Midnight Runners is a refreshing break from the genre movie of gangs and violence that we typically get from Korea. The main actors: Park Seo Joon and Kang Ha Neul have fantastic chemistry and their scenes are effortlessly outrageously hilarious. Their comic timing, delivery and the way they play off each other's lines is just amazing to watch.

The story is not the most ingenuous or complex, but it works. It's a simple story about two young police academy cadets who don't have a real strong reason or desire to become police officers and who unwittingly find themselves in a situation that requires them to demonstrate the moral fiber and courage of what one would hope to find in a future police officer. It's not fancy and that's the key. It's simple, relatable, and most importantly a whole lot of fun and funny. I was definitely glad to have watched it, and walked out having felt like all the stress of the day was laughed off during the movie.