If you’re the type of high and mighty person that gives the lowly food delivery guy s**t when he arrives at your door with the pizza, buffalo wings, or Chinese food, perhaps seeing this movie will change your ways. If it doesn’t then something oughta really soon, you cranky turd.
“Take Out” has us follow Ming on his seemingly endless string of Chinese food deliveries in New York City so he can pay off his smuggling debt, which has gone dangerously long overdue. The film opens with a couple of gruff collectors roughing Ming up, which immediately sets a grim tone for the film that gets worse as Ming wanders about the city, trying to figure how the hell he’s going to come up with $800 by the end of the night. Borrowing some money from a friend, he decides that he’s going to have to make up the rest by hustling his a*s doubly hard all over the city in his job as food deliverer for a Chinese food restaurant, making it all in tips.
And so begins Ming’s hustle, which takes him door to endless door, putting us ringside for what life must be like for a delivery guy. You guessed it – pretty shitty. But as depressing as this may sound, this is actually where the tone of the film picks up, turning from grim to charming as we also get ringside to the activities within the restaurant. Humor is provided by the restaurant staff with Ming’s glum demeanor reminding us of the impending doom that awaits him if he doesn’t come up with the cash by the end of his shift.
Starting off a little slow and especially depressing, “Take Out” turns out to be quite an infectious watch, tickling surprising laughs from its audience and teaching them to be a little nicer next time they make an order for delivery.
