Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
Ezekiel Mannings, a vicious crime boss, is out to kill Nick, the lone witness set to testify against him. He hires a mysterious female motorcycle courier to unknowingly deliver a poison-gas bomb to slay Nick, but after she rescues Nick from certain death, the duo must confront an army of ruthless hired killers in order to survive the night.
The Courier (2019) is a fairly generic action-thriller that hits familiar beats without distinction. The premise—an unwitting courier caught up in a criminal conspiracy—has been done many times before, and the execution doesn't elevate it. The plot is serviceable but formulaic, following a predictable cat-and-mouse structure through a single night in London. Acting is competent but unremarkable across the board, with characters thinly drawn. Cinematography is functional and workmanlike, without memorable visual choices. Novelty is low as the film recycles well-worn action-thriller tropes with little distinctive voice or craft. The ending resolves things in a conventional, unsurprising manner consistent with the genre formula. A passable but thoroughly average genre entry that sits comfortably at its middling reputation.