Vehicle 19

"There was a mix-up. That car was meant to be picked up by one of our undercover police officers." Michael Woods (Walker) flies to South Africa to see his girlfriend that he hasn't seen in a long time. When he gets to the airport there is a problem with the rental car agency and he grabs another car just to get to his girl as fast as he can. While driving he receives a call from a stranger telling him the car was not meant for him. When he finds a woman in the trunk with a secret that can take down the entire police force Michael is forced into a situation he is not used to. I have to admit that I am not a Paul Walker fan at all so remember that in this review. For the plot and idea of this the movie was pretty slow moving. Do not expect a Fast & Furious type movie. This is more like the Transporter, but slower. The entire movie, except for the first few minutes takes place entirely in a car. Normally that doesn't bother me, but this just didn't have enough action to keep me interested in the one shot. Overall, to me Paul Walker was neither fast nor furious in this, and neither was the movie. I give it a C+.

I wonder why many script writers have to make the protagonist looks stupid in order to make the movie looks suspenseful. Why did the protagonist put the gun on the dashboard? Why didn't he tell the black woman that he just rented the car? Why didn't he go straight to the US embassy in the first place? Why didn't he just send the recording file from his phone to the judge & the press? Why didn't he directly charge the phone when the battery was low? Why didn't he answer the black cop's question? If you just want to see a full action car chase, then this movie is for you. But if you hate watching stupid protagonist, then avoid this movie.

Plot was refreshing. Paul's acting specially toward the later half was good. The camera usage laced inside the car was very unique. Not seen many movies with this kind of attempt.

What screwed up the movie for me was the numerous logical errors right from start. Car company gives a rental without checking and cleaning out the vehicle? Why would a person in a new country rent a car...instead of using a taxi or Super Shuttle or whatever? In 2011 who does not have a smartphone which has GPS capability? Who does not come prepared to a new country without specific instructions to reach the US Embassy? Paul takes so much time to decide to spray his car. If you are a criminal on the run the first thing you would do is to ditch your vehicle and try using another. Or just hire a cab to get to US embassy.

A different Director would have made this a great movie. Sorry I cannot go beyond 5 in rating this movie

I was very saddened, as was everyone, by the recent passing of Paul Walker. He may not have been the finest actor around, but he had charisma and screen presence. He seemed to love doing movies involving cars as a central theme. Unfortunately this may have skewed his decision on deciding to do 'Vehicle 19', because not many could debate this was a blight on his career.

The first thing that must be mentioned is the grim view it portrays of Johannesburg, South Africa. From what I understand of the place (having never been) what we see is quite accurate to how things really are, but it just felt as though the quantity it was shown in was overkill. There were constantly people coming up to cars with knives demanding wallets, or kids coming up and distracting from one window while another child steals things from the other window, or even people driving by a pulled over police car and throwing things at it before driving off. Just a few examples of things that just kept coming up and were for the most part completely unrelated to the story and held little relevance to anything. Perhaps writer/director Mukunda Michael Dewil had a bad experience there once?

The writing is lazy throughout. The opening scene shows Walker's character in a car chase trying to avoid the police. The screen then pauses and we are shown the word on the screen "earlier". I don't mind beginning a movie with a scene that takes place later in the piece, but the scene needs to provide at least some intrigue or mystery. This movie is called 'Vehicle 19', it wouldn't have taken a genius to work out there would be a car chase in it at some point. The set-up is incredibly lazy, to the point that no explanation is even attempted as to why Walker's character is given the wrong car in the first place. The characters make incredibly unrealistic decisions throughout which makes it really hard to have any empathy for them. Naima McLean's acting was near unwatchable. Walker himself does what he can with a terrible script and terrible actors to work off. I was actually impressed with the effort he put in. I'm sure he realised pretty early in the piece what a shocker he'd signed on to, so it can't have been easy.

It's a real shame this movie has to stay on Walker's résumé, especially in the latter part of it. He had some pretty good movies in his time, 'Joy Ride' being a personal favourite of mine and of course the 'Fast and Furious' series. Of course no actor is clean of the odd shocker so it'll be forgiven. But I plead with you - if you get the urge to go and rent/buy some Walker films to remember him by just skip over this one.

One reviewer says this film has a "nice plot", but the plot of Vehicle 19 is actually its greatest downfall, and, as movies generally succeed or fail or their plots, this movie is a bit of a bummer.

What I am about to say might, for some films, be a plot spoiler, but as I've established the plot is poop, I don't think I need to worry.

So, Paul Walker arrives at Jo'burg airport, picks up the wrong rental car and subsequently discovers a silenced gun has been left for the rightful renter for the purpose of killing the female lawyer currently tied up and gagged in the trunk. Hmm. Someone has gone to the trouble of kidnapping this woman, sourcing a silenced weapon, bundling her into a rental car, but doesn't bother with that extra step of killing her. (This is a little like that old James Bond moment when the baddies always but always fail to actually kill him when they have the chance.) Instead, they have hired someone from abroad to fly in, pick up the car, take it somewhere remote and kill the woman. Come on, people, this is one of the most violent countries on earth; you couldn't find someone local to do the job?

This is, therefore, one of the most contrived plot openings ever, and its discordant noise reverberates throughout the entire film. Paul Walker's character makes some equally idiotic moves with the sole purpose of progressing what remains of the plot, ignoring common sense at every turn in a sterling effort to place himself in as much danger as possible.

You get the gist.

The final scene is a direct rip-off of Clint Eastwood's The Gauntlet, which is a far better get-this-lady-to-safety film than Vehicle 19 could ever hope to be.

It's rather sad. As much as I really like Paul Walker as an action hero, and mourn his untimely passing, this is a pitiful epitaph for the man.