Last year's The Roundup, the highly entertaining sequel to the surprise hit, The Outlaws, surpassed box office records which quickly warranted another sequel released just after a year.
The Roundup: No Way Out, set seven years after the events in the Roundup, involves Ma Seok-Do played by the charismatic Ma Dong-Seok, aka Don Lee, hunting down gangsters and corrupt cops involved in the drug trade. The fairly standard plot gets convoluted as more characters get involved that lead to more betrayals and it seems to get lost in its track as it spends a good portion of the time having all of the characters basically race against each other to look for the drugs known in the movie as Hiper.
The Roundup: No Way Out does absolutely nothing new besides doubling down on the number of characters, both comedic and villainous as well as the action sequences. Unfortunately, this leaves no room for character development in a movie that's 105 minutes long and what you essentially get is Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee, beating down or hurting everyone who gets in his way. It even gets repetitive as Ma Seok-Do goes to a place to beat up people, interrogate them, use characters to help him find someone else, rinse repeat. If that's what you want, that is what you will exactly get. There is also more slapstick comedy this time around due to the hilarious supporting characters who help Ma Dong-Seok in his quest to go after the villains.
The Japanese characters are underutilized who don't show up until the second half. There is only a surprise cameo from Jun Kunimura, a famous and reputable actor in Japan, unfortunately only shows up in a cameo who would've made the movie better if he was in more scenes or cast as another villain. Another famous Japanese actor, Munetaka Aoki, as the vicious killer, Ricky, whose only purpose in the movie is to kill people and find the drugs, elevates the movie somewhat.
The fast-paced action makes up for the lack of character development and the standard procedural storytelling but could've been better if they were a bit longer with much stronger villains. The fight scenes were entertaining nonetheless and also a showcase for Ma Dong-Seok's boxing skills, and you could feel the impact of the punches.
It has been confirmed that another sequel titled The Roundup: Punishment is set to be released in 2024 which will go back to having one villain this time. Hopefully, it will at least try to attempt something different and not play it safe despite the fact that what we can surely expect is Ma Dong-Seok again brutally punching his way through the villains.
There is also a surprise cameo in a mid-credits scene from a character who was in the previous movies which I will not spoil. Be sure not to miss it.
