These friends will do anything for the sake of brotherhood and saving the lives of children.

Even if it involves completely senseless destruction of public property and endangering pretty much every pedestrian on the road. Anything to save the lives of those children.

 

The movie with the curiously awkward title, Golden Job, is mainly action, small parts heartfelt moments, and peppered with plot changes.  Five friends have a bond as close as brothers as they all grew up together as orphans. They defend and help one another as they are mentored by a man who they call Papa. Papa encouraged their bond and loyalty to one another as they engineered heist after heist. Until the heist when the friendship between them begins to fracture. A betrayal, a stolen truck of gold bars, and a gazillion destructive car chases leads to one of the friends driving himself literally to jail. As the movie stews upon this cinematic break for his incarceration montage, we see how far the friends have drifted. It doesn’t matter how far though because once the incarceration is complete, it’s a quick flash to  get the  group together.

Golden Job is a heist movie that is less on the heist and more about pure action. There is barely any time to develop the story or explore any of the characters.  It is clear where the lines are drawn and pretty much all about beating up the opponent in a race of wit, time, and strength.

It is very entertaining watching all of the mind-boggling mixture of CGI and real life car chases through malls and stadiums. The amount of damage and trauma left behind really questions the importance of getting those children to their medicine. Or even better question, do these friends remember why they were doing this at all? It just seemed less about a time sensitive-matter and more about quick second decisions for high octane ridiculousness.

There were some focused parts of the movie that reminded the viewer that despite the recklessness and crazy, this movie does have a ticking hear. Many of the touching moments centered around the bonds between the friends. There were many flashbacks of their youth fighting one another, sharing their hopes and dreams despite being orphans. Coming close behind are the moments with  Papa. Despite the changes wrought upon him by time, he is still a strong willed character and loyalty defines him. One particular scene involved another older man coming to his rescue by laying some surprisingly awesome martial arts moves.

 

So who are the friends?

The leader of the  group is Lion (played by Ekin Cheng). He is cool and fair, always insisting on a vote before any action.

The explosive expert is Crater (played by Jordan Chan). He is quiet and always looking for the worst case scenario.

Then there’s Bill (played by Michael Tse). Unassuming as his nickname, he is able to impersonate anyone on a mission and hide his true intent.

Directing the movie and acting as the mechanic is Chin Ka-Lok playing the friend nicknamed as Calm.

You can’t have a heist without a computer expert and this is where Mouse  (played by Jerry Lamb) who peeps  right in.

What is lost to the majority of the American audience is that Golden Job is a revival of a famous 1980s franchise called “Young & Dangerous.” A long standing franchise which most of is unavailable in the US.  Screen Anarchy did comprehensive research into the franchise which can be checked out here.  Completely over my head in that aspect.

After checking into the background of Chin Ka-Lok, the director of Golden Job, it pretty much makes sense why this movie has this particular flavor of action and cars. Chin Ka-Lok began his career as a martial artist in a stunt team and was also an amateur race driver. All of those insane car chases were from an experienced stunt man.

Overall, a pretty good movie to watch especially knowing that it’s the revival of a franchise. This is especially the movie to watch for stuntman just going nuts with all of the tricks.

For more info on the movie, go to: http://www.wellgousa.com/films/golden-job

GIVEAWAY!

Enter our giveaway for a blu-ray copy of Golden Job to judge the action for yourself! To enter:

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• Or Commet below on what would be your reason for a heist

Giveaway ends May 31st, 2019.