A low budget indie thriller with an interesting concept, but VEHICLE 19 suffers from sluggish pace and short of adrenaline rush. The first thing that attracted me to watch this low-budget indie thriller called VEHICLE 19 is its irresistible concept -- the movie is shot entirely from inside the car. Now that's what I called a great novelty. However, South African director Mukunda Michael Dewil fails to capitalize his own concept. Instead of a fast-paced thriller normally expected from this kind of movie, VEHICLE 19 sputters as it moves along. Somewhere in between, director Mukunda Michael Dewil manages to stage some claustrophobic moments and worthy action scenes within the confined space of a car (and limited budget). Paul Walker is fairly adequate to put on a (mostly) one-man show as a brooding and manic anti-hero. It's a shame that Mukunda Michael Dewil's script is lackluster. More than often, the movie loses its momentum whenever it tries to elaborate the storyline. The pace is patchy, while the movie's overly-stylized look is too distracting for its own good. Overall, VEHICLE 19 only works in certain angles. The rest of them are as rusty as a beat-up engine.

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 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.

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.

I watched this last week on February 23rd at the theaters. I am not sure why this was released here in Japan well before the rest of the World because Japan tends to be last in getting movies released.

It was a good story overall and I must say excellent cinematography. The film takes places in Johannesburg, South Africa and the film does an excellent job showing the ins and outs of the city.

Paul Walker does a great job playing Michael Woods. His role reminds me of his role in Running Scared as he seems to have a short fuse and quite foul-mouthed. Don't let the trailers of this movie fool you however. You see Paul Walker and car chases and might expect a Fast and the Furious type of flick. However this movie is more of a car adventure/drama than action/car chase movie. I can say however that most of the movie takes place in a car.

I liked this movie overall but it is not the type of movie that you rush out to see in the theaters. There aren't enough action sequences to get the theater effect. Wait for DVD.

Being very different from the trailer, I still found myself enjoying this thriller very much. It's very unconventional, something I really enjoy. After watching a ton of movies over the years, I love to watch something new. This is!

We meet a guy out on parole after killing someone in an accident, going to Jo'Burg, South Africa, and going to be there on a scheduled time, meeting his wife at the American embassy. But things go wrong off right after landing on a delayed plane. He gets the wrong car by Hertz, where there are two car rented by the police. He finds himself in an awful predicament, and is soon hunted by corrupt police. But being the son of a sadist, the corrupt police has "picked" the wrong guy to frame for a crime. Paul Walker is great, acting very solid.

I like the South African touch here. An American coming to a very different and exotic country, where he immediately finds himself not knowing anything. This is fresh film making, and far from your average stupid Hollywood flick.

Don't listen to the haters here. They were probably expecting a Fast & Furious rip off or lookalike movie here. This is nothing such. It's a rather exceptionally different thriller. Not everything is 100 percent believable, but still it's way better than a lot of others.

Very well done. By far the best thing I have ever seen Paul Walker in. This is what this guy needs, meaty roles to play not his FF stuff. The guy holds this film in very tense ride. Not sure who this director is ( he;s the writer too i see) but well done, maybe the ext Neil Bloomkamp here.

And JoBurg looks a menace too.

Keeping the camera in the car helps the tension. Must have been a bitch to film it all like that.

Solid all round. Sure this is going to get many people to take notice.

Well done.

As some reviewers already pointed out, this movie is closest to Phone Booth in style and theme. In contrast to it, Vehicle 19 fails to keep up the constant level of intensity and escalation. However, it surely was an entertaining flick.

All the negatives of pacing problems aside, reason for 7 stars are twofold: 1) Paul Walker's excellent performance and 2) just driving around in JoBurg was interesting in itself. JoBurg is not the most typical setting for a thriller. Previously, I had written Paul Walker of as a pretty-boy surfer-dude who likes to drive fast cars. But in this one he showed that he is a quality actor who can deliver subtle and intense performances.

Michael Woods (Paul Walker) is on parole after being released from an American prison. He breaks parole to go to Johannesburg, South Africa to find his ex-wife Angie. He picks up the wrong rental car at the airport. He finds a phone and a gun. He is about to abandon the car at a junkyard when he gets a call from police detective Smith. Smith gives him an address to swap cars. Michael gets hopelessly lost and then he finds Rachel Shabangu bound in the back of the minivan.

Michael proclaims that "This is Crazy!" I feel the same way about the movie. It makes no sense why he would keep the woman prisoner. He should just let her go and clean up whatever fingerprints are on the car. Every move makes less sense. The character is an idiot and Paul Walker does not really play idiots well. I do mean idiot as in mentally deficient. There is nothing holding him to the situation. This is very manufactured which drains all tension from the drama and the action. It doesn't matter how well it's film or how exciting are the car chases. The character simply doesn't make sense.

A foreign traveler (Paul Walker) unknowingly picks up a rental car that will tie him to a web of corrupt local police. That's how it was listed, sounded like it would be a good thriller, so we decided to rent it. BIG Mistake! As soon as the movie starts, they start to play some kind of loud rap mess, Oh Ooooooo.....

Fifteen minutes into the movie, my wife whispers that our dog has more intelligence than the main character. That sums up the writing script. I won't go into the countless preposterous senseless things that happen because my review would be as long as the screen play itself. But, diehards that we are, we watched it to the end. All 85 minutes of it. You read correctly. The writer couldn't even think of another 5 minutes of junk to at least make it a respectable 90 minutes. Oops! Did I say: "Watched it to the end"? That would insinuate that there was actually an ending to the story. There Was an end to the movie but the end of the story must have been cut. I guess the writer figured that since most people would have walked out already, he could save a few minutes of his time and money by just not wasting time on an ending.

This movie was obviously written for a percentage of the younger crowd that support double digit I.Q.'s. Of course, if you are one of the above, just ignore my obviously ridiculous review, accept my apology, and rent this Exciting, Action, Thriller immediately.

If I sounded cynical or misanthropical, guilty as charged. I realize that movie makers lie, cheat, and do whatever they can think of to Sell A Movie so that they can milk the public for every penny that they can. But, to this day, I still feel defiled when I voluntarily give up my hard earned money for something that is advertised as good when it turns out to be just another ripoff. And, as usual in the case of bad cinema drivel, the trailer was once again better than the entire movie. Heck, just watch the trailer 40 times. That's free, you'll get your 85 minutes worth of entertainment, and you'll enjoy it more than the actual movie.

I am a fan of the Fast & Furious movies, some more than others, and my expectation was that this movie would offer a similar level of entertainment and action. Unfortunately it fell way short of that.

If it is meant to be a tense thriller then Paul Walker's terrible over-acting in scenes of anger or 'this can't be happening to me!' provided no credibility and thus failed to be in anyway gripping. And with no real back story or character build-up to balance this, you immediately get turned off the petulant man-child with anger management issues. For me this was from 5 minutes in.

I'm not sure if it was a bad story line or poor editing but the movie often jumps from scene to scene with little cohesion. One has to totally suspend disbelief during any chases given the car he is driving vs those who are chasing.

Finally, Paul Walker's script defies logic as he continuously fails to have a conversation with other characters about what has happened or is happening. If this was supposed to be 'angry alpha male type that doesn't communicate well'.....then it simply doesn't work.

3 out of 10 for a promising plot with a few tense moments.

A plot nicely laid out in Johannesburg...

But the movie failed to have control and the director miserably failed to get a thrill out of it.

It can be considered a better City Tour of Johannesburg then a movie worth enjoying.

By the name and the cast the movie was to be a thriller...

But it was more of a waster.

I always consider a movie a HIT when it keeps coming to your mind even the next day and the next day.

Its the flavor...

But this one i wanted to sleep in the theater rather than waste my time watching it.

I actually enjoyed the movie. It gave you well the insecurity about being a foreigner in South - Africa. If all bad things happen to you, how to out of this mess, in a foreign country. The characters are a bit shallow, but then this is just a simple story.

Without being a great movie, it isn't, it kept me well entertained. yes there are plot holes, but on the hole, you are always wondering what is going to be next.

I would have even given it a 7, if the end was not disappointing, and it seemed, that it was rushed into. Many questions about Paul Walker's character stay unanswered, and you feel like something is missing. A bit more explanation. Not that it matter that much, as you not NEED to know to understand his motifs.

Writer/director Mukunda Michael Dewil gives us yet another boilerplate story who main character is a car chase. Set in Johannesburg South Africa the place may be different but the plot is threadbare. The whole film would have been better if the lead character Michael Woods (portrayed by the hunky Paul Walker) had been allowed to take off his shirt to show the better part of his talent which has been misused in this boring little drama. The remainder of the cast (with the possible exception of Naima McLean and Gys de Villiers is misused or unremarkable.

For those who wish to see a plot out line, the following my provide that information: 'Michael (Paul Walker) is an ex-con breaking his parole conditions to visit the ex-wife he hasn't seen in 5 years. He's late and a power outage at the airport rental company mixes up his booking. Driving now, he hears a phone beep but not his phone -a phone inside the rental cars glove compartment. Someone probably left it by mistake. Stuck in traffic now, Michael, scratching around under the car seat, feels something - a gun, the kind of gun you kill people with. The phone rings and Michael is meant to acknowledge receipt of the message. Michael tries to mumble out some explanation that it's not his phone, but a rental mix-up. The phone goes dead. The phone rings again. The voice is friendlier now, explaining he got the wrong car: it was meant for an undercover policeman. Michael is relieved he's not in trouble. The detective gives Michael directions to drop off the Minivan and get another vehicle. Michael gets lost, the minivan gets stuck on a bumpy dirt road. Michael struggles to get the vehicle out of a ditch, having to really give it some gas. The minivan pops out of the ditch. But as it does, the back seat flips forward -- something rolling out of the trunk! A woman, bound and gagged. He pulls off her gag. Weak but with enough awareness to see Michael is no threat, she tells him she's been kidnapped, she's got to testify in a major corruption trial. Without her testimony the prosecution has no case.' And car chase goes on and on and on.

For those unable to find anything else on the On Demand channels, this will pass the time – but it is definitely headed for obscurity.

Grady Harp

I am from South Africa, and I wanted to walk out of this movie, because South Africa isn't even 10% as they show in this movie. Everything was unrealistic, even the cars the police drive in. The news broad casted about what happened, please! The weird dog on the highway! Come on! The fires next to the road, please, the chickens: ahhh! No really! Everything: twang! I was very disappointed! Very! Did not even recognized my own country! I cannot believe Paul Walker would do such a low budget film. I will not recommend it to anyone. I gave the movie a two, but for me it actually deserve a seven, Johannesburg does NOT look like that, and you don't have all that happening here. It was unrealistic and too much crap!

When this movie started, I went 'oh no, not another "Fast and Furious" car movie'. And I believe that thought was spurred on by Paul Walker starring in it and from the DVD movie's cover.

But luckily "Vehicle 19" turned out to be so much more better in terms of storyline and having a solid script, which definitely put most of the "Fast and Furious" movies to shame.

Sure, it may not have the big fancy cars and the special effects that "Fast and Furious" has, but it is still managing to stand very well on its own.

There definitely is a good amount of action and car chases in the movie. When you combine that with a properly thought through storyline, then you get a movie that actually is worth watching.

"Vehicle 19" has some good acting performances, although the cast was a relatively small ensemble of actors and actresses.

If you enjoy car movies and enjoyed Paul Walker in movies, then "Vehicle 19" is definitely well worth checking out.