‘The Roundup’ Review: A Rip-Roaring Sequel to a South Korean Action Hit
variety.comDennis Harvey Film CriticOne of the most enjoyable South Korean action movies in recent years, 2017’s “The Outlaws” was a deft mix of brutal gang-warfare thrills and Keystone Cops comedics.
It provided an ideal vehicle for Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee (“Train to Busan” and “Eternals”) as the police investigator whose hit-first-ask-permission-later methods regularly got the job done while infuriating his superiors.That burly protagonist and his sidekicks are back in “The Roundup,” which despite a different directorial (newbie Lee Sang-yong replacing the prior edition’s Kang Yoon-seong) and writing crew, maintains the original’s strengths.
It arguably kicks them up a notch further, making for a slam-dunk entertainment that’s already proved a sensation at the home box office.
Pre-sold to most offshore territories, it’s currently playing U.S. and Canadian theaters as a Capelight Pictures release. After a prologue showing the abduction of a wealthy young Korean in Ho Chi Minh City, we re-encounter our ham-fisted hero in 2008, four years after the earlier film’s events.
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