Pipeline: Striking Oil, Not Gold

I'm trying to figure out why director Ha Yoo and his co-writer Kim Kyung-chan included a subplot involving two cops in their thriller Pipeline. The central story, which involves a motley, underground crew siphoning oil from two major subterranean conduits, is more than enough. The film already has the tensions that come when a bunch of desperate oddballs unite to execute a major outlandish crime: Drill-bit (Seo In-guk) has too much ego; Mr. Na (Yoo Seung-mok) has cancer; and Shovel (Tae Hang-ho) has brawn without brains. There's even a rivalry between Drill-bit and the team welder Jeob-sae (Eum Moon-Suk) while the questionable loyalties of the sole female gang member Counter (Bae Da-bin) also factor into the story. Another narrative thread is hardly needed.

Indeed the driving drama doesn't rely on the lawmen but instead on an evil benefactor &3151; the insanely greedy, insanely in-debt Gun-woo (Lee Soo-hyuk) who promises exorbitant amounts of cash if this gang can pull of his wackadoodle oil heist. As for the cops (Bae Yoo-ram and a not-so-memorable sidekick), they come with a back story and goofy demeanors that suggests they're the comic relief. Laugh, I did not. Nor did their presence distract me from the nonsensical aspects of anyone trusting Mr. Moneybags at his word or an involved bit of trickery that allows this criminal crew to outwit their despotic funder with a karmic water bomb.