Out Of Korea, AFRIKA?

What do you get when you mix gambling cops, bumbling gangsters, guns, and four girls on the run? The result is a Set It Off-lite movie A.F.R.I.K.A (2006), which varies from lightly amusing comedy to boring, pseudo-moralistic tripe about the power of friendship.
Two college girls off to the beach stumble upon a supposed toy gun in the back seat of the car. Unbeknownst to them, the vehicle has been stolen and the guns are real, having being lost in a game by the aforementioned cop and gangsters.
By some inane and downright unbelievable plot devices, the girls pick up a waitress/hostage/hooker/getaway driver and a "mysterious" girl and make their way to Seoul, robbing people who--by movie standards I guess--supposedly deserve it, all for personal gain. Cue montage of girls getting their hair "did", buying expensive phones and living in luxurious hotels. In an incredulously short amount of time the girls bond and become fast friends, but not before they end up pointing the guns at each other once or twice for some drama and garnering a fan club A.F.R.I.K.A (Adoring Four Revolutionary Idols Korea Association. Does that even make sense?) for which they are named. They apparently love the derrings-do of the girls, enough to grant them cult status.
What is sadly lacking is actual character development, or anything that allows us a real connection with the ragtag theiving crew. All the circumstances created to promote pathos for anyone (all seeming to revolve around men doing a female wrong) sadly falls flat and really seems almost petulantly childish. The anticlimatic finale is the icing on this very, very disappointing cake, making this a miss in my book.

1 out of 5 for being made.