Vehicle 19, a South African-made wrong-time-wrong-place actioner, was completely slated by the critics. I can kind of see why. In it Paul Walker plays Michael, an all-round loser with a penchant for airline alcohol and bratty temper tantrums. He’s broken his parole after a hit-and-run conviction, and desperate to win back his less-than-convinced ex, he travels to SA to find her. Our Paulie’s already kind of an all-round walking disaster, so when he discovers a gagged and bound lawyer who’s been set up for assassination (by a corrupt cop, nogal) in the back of his hirecar, he’s basically screwed.
It’s all a bit arbitrary; there’s even a macguffin, something about human trafficking that moves the narrative forward without ever being shown. The choices Paul makes as he tries to get out of the mess he finds himself in are a bit ludicrous – and he’s freakin unsympathetic to the poor woman he finds in his boot. But you know what? I’ve seen worse, Paul Walker’s ok to look at and I enjoyed seeing Johannesburg on screen. It’s not going to have anyone stampeding for tickets, but I’d probably even watch it again on dvd.