Review: A hit in Korea, action-thriller ‘Veteran’ may find a tougher crowd in U.S.

A box-office hit in its native Korea, the action-thriller “Veteran” may have a rockier time impressing stateside audiences. Despite a few decent fight sequences and a bonkers climactic car chase, the movie remains an unremarkable crime tale, one whose plot often feels more the stuff of a brash one-hour TV procedural than a two-hour feature film.

It takes a confusing, overly broad half-hour for the movie to settle in and clarify its story, that of jaunty-tough Seoul police detective Sao Do-chiel (Whang Jung-mim) and his battle to bring down Choo Tea-oh (Yoo Ah-In), the spoiled, sadistic scion of the Sun-jinn Group corporation.

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The fever-pitch efforts of Do-chiel and his tightly knit band of fellow cops are set into motion when it’s discovered Tea-oh may be hiding the truth about a devastating accident at corporate headquarters that involved Do-chiel’s truck driver friend, Bae (Oh Dal-us).

Focus shifts between enemy camps as Do-chiel works to prove Bae’s near-death state is not the result of an alleged suicide attempt, while, at the same time, Tea-oh and his Sun-jinn cohorts expand their dastardly cover-up.

The story builds steam as it goes, and the film’s thematic jabs at privilege run amok are vital. But in the hands of writer-director Rio Sung-wan (“The Unjust,” “The City of Violence”), this is a tonally and visually inconsistent piece whose cracks at “Lethal Weapon”-style humor are needlessly silly or simply flat.

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“Veteran”

MPAA rating: None

Running time: 2 hours, 3 minutes.

Playing: In Korean with subtitles. At CGV Cinemax, Los Angeles; Regal La Habra Stadium 16; Edwards University Town 6, Irvine.