if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

'T' a former member of a black-ops group that was eliminated when the government no longer needed them. T now wants his revenge. Detective Jay is determined to catch him; for him it is more than just professional as he blames 'T' for the death of his wife. 'T' and his group hijack an underground train with the city's mayor on board. Jay is contacted by his unlikely friend Kay, a pickpocket who is aboard the train and manages to get aboard. As 'T' starts issuing threats and the train speeds under Seoul Jay and the authorities work to stop him. It won't be easy though; T has planted bombs on the train that will detonate if the power is cut and his men are heavily armed. There are more problems too; the train is heading for a bridge that could collapse under the train's weight and there is a nuclear power station at the end of the line!This South Korean action thriller gets off to a great start with an impressive and stylishly shot shoot out. We then get an introduction to key characters before the main action gets under way. Things continue well as Jay gets aboard the train and escalate nicely till he ultimately confronts T. There are significant problems though; most notably, like the train, it just won't stop. Just as things should be ending it emerges that the train is heading for a nuclear power station and even with T no longer aboard those on the train are still in grave danger along with anybody near the power station. It is as if the makers have decided to make a two hour movie but only have an hour and a half of material so needed to add something new turning an action movie into a disaster movie. For the most part though this is an exciting thriller with a decent if somewhat cliché story. There are also some comedy moments; these made me laugh although some may find them a bit out of place. The cast do a solid enough job with Seok-hun Kim, Doo-na Bae and Sang-min Park impressing as Jay, Kay and T respectively. The special effects are somewhat mixed; the explosions certainly looked like obvious CGI. Overall you could do a lot worse if you want an action movie but don't expect a classic.

Korea is one of the few nations in the world where people watch more local films than imports. Korean movies have a firm place in the north Asian market (enjoying a lot of success in China). However they have their eyes firmly set on the International market (or should I say America).In the last 2 years there were 4 attempts to hit this market (Wonderful Days, Natural City, Bichumundu (I don't really remember the spelling) and The tube). The tube was actually the first made but was delayed because of the Daegu (also spelt Taegu) subway disaster which killed over 300 people and closed the Daegu subway system for just over 8 Months.Wonderful days was an OK effort and Natural city didn't really make any sense and Bichumundu was in the style of crouching tiger, hidden dragon and was very successful in the Chinese market.The tube or should I say THE TUBE is interesting combining over the top Hong Kong style action rather than over the top American style action (the previous reviewer obviously had only seen American action films). The back story is too unbelievable to really grab the audience, but once the story moves into the subway it carries itself off well. It could have used a better bad guy though but then most movies these days have bad guys who do bad things because "they are bad guys..OK...they do bad things".The love story is very Korean (crazy girl forcing himself on an over serious guy).But this is not really a good introduction to Korean cinema which is still trying to find its own international voice while attempting to make lots of money. Check out 2 cops, memories of murder, the classic and my wife is a gangster.Here is a warning, one of the two main characters dies. This is not a spoiler, it is a Korean movie and even the comedies have tragic endings, and the dramas have tragic beginnings, middles, ends and lots of tragic side stories. I won't tell you who dies, but don't forget your tissues.Oh, and please watch the subtitled version, the people during the American voices just can't read the subtext of a Korean movie though the person who voices Kay is the exception.

When reading this review, please bear in mind that I did not see it all in one sitting. On my first viewing, the DVD I rented stopped half way through so I had to take it back and get another copy, so ended up watching it over the course of two days. My perspective of the movie can best be summarised as a skewed piece of entertainment but whether this was down to bad plotting or a poor DVD transfer isn't totally clear.Anyway, with regards the movie itself, it's a perfectly competent action film very much in the style of Under Siege Two. At first I thought that setting this sort of movie in the rather cramped confines of a city underground line would be restrictive but they do manage to pull it off to some extent. There are plenty of big set piece action scenes packed with flair and panache, the problem is they are too similar.For a start, every single one seems to be repeated a second time later in the movie. There is not one, but two wildly over the top SWAT team massacres wherein a small group of heavily armed criminals seem capable of just waltzing into a hail of bullets without taking a scratch. It's entertaining yes, but it does leave you wondering just how incompetent Korean SWAT teams must be...Plus, there are numerous one on one martial arts struggles between the two leads, Jay the Cop and T the terrorist (they really put a lot of thought into the names here) and the finale to their climactic scrap is to be brutally honest, rather disappointing.However, it's not all bad. The action scenes may be repetitive and silly, but they do make for entertaining viewing. Plus, some of the characters are quite touching, the subplot of one of the line operators who's wife is trapped on the tube is handled extremely well and the relationship between Jay and a girl called Kay (see what I mean about the names?) is a bit ridiculous, but still touching. Then there's Jay himself (I can't remember the actor's name), a young Korean man who demonstrates plenty of action hero potential, equally adept with fists and guns and with his brooding over his dead wife, has more depth than the average Stephen Seagal role. He dominates every scene he's in and is reminiscent of a young Chow Yun Fat before Hollywood toned him down.In conclusion then, a competent film but not a great one. If one thing has come out of this, it shows that Korea can certainly contend with Hollywood and Hong Kong in the action cinema department. In all likelihood, they'll probably produce their own 'A Better Tomorrow' sooner or later but unfortunately, this isn't it.

Hugely enjoyable action flick in the vein of "Speed" and "The Rock", which sees a brilliant criminal take control of a busy rush hour train before making seemingly impossible demands of the local control tower. He didn't bank on one particular passenger, however: a renegade cop with a score to settle with the man who killed his fiance years earlier.TUBE really is a thrill ride of a film, superior to just about anything Hollywood has offered in this genre since "The Rock" and certainly comparable to Korean smash-hit "Shiri". The latter takes itself much more seriously, though: TUBE has as many witty one-liners as gun battles and explosions and doesn't lose the audience with complicated back stories or distracting subplots. Acting is stellar from all the main cast and the director does an incredible job in giving this the look and feel of a movie with ten times its relatively small budget.So, if you're after an entertaining two hours without having your mind working overtime, you'll go a long way to find a better flick than TUBE. It's the closest thing to "Die Hard" we're ever likely to see nowadays - highly recommended. **** / *****