I never heard of this movie when I rented it, and I had no idea which country it was from. Heh, i didn't bother reading the DVD cover. I thought it was Japanese, as it had that look, but the writing was a little off. Regardless, it's a South Korean actioner, that stylistically had some nice moments, but this film did not know when to quit.
Basically, two bad guys take over a train, and hold the country ransom. A renegade detective who is has a past with the main bad guy, must work with the police and the rail system to try and save the hostages. The Korean equivalent to 'Under Siege 2'! From the opening scene, where the main villain somehow manages to thwart the entire police force unscathed, this is a hard film to take seriously! Not only is it fairly confusing as to what character did what to the other in the past, it has moments where you don't quite know what happened to the characters. Did some of the passengers of the train get killed during that huge shootout? Why didn't the hostages in the main carriage escape during the first big macho fight between protagonist and antagonist? Little things like that! Oh, and then a sub-character and his colleagues seem to take two thirds of the movie to re-act to that sub-character's love interest being one of the hostages? Oh, and the police force don't seem to acknowledge any loss of life when planning their next move. But the main problem I had with this film, is that it was climax overkill. Every time, our hero seemed to stop something bad from happening, there was another introduction of a plot element that wasn't established. Trains almost colliding with each other, and the pressure is on the technical staff! The hero manages to thwart the train's weight making a bridge collapse with it's obstacles, then has to stop a bomb, and fight a bad guy (again, with obstacles), then the next plot point is introduced, and the other heroes have to divert the train from hitting a nuclear plant (ala obstacles). And then there is yet another climax after that. Like one reviewer noted, all you needed was something to hold down the weight of the lever in regard to that one! I was getting really bored of this movie towards the end. Plus, there a pointless scene where the hostages stand up to the bad guy, and it could have been totally cut, and it didn't furthur the plot at all. It was totally unnecessary cause it didn't add to the story thematically, or provide anything to the plot! That pretty much sums up how 'Tube' keeps piling unnecessary climatic moments, and it really over-kills the climax factor basically because they forgot to introduce many of the main elements beforehand (i.e. the rigged train to explode, and subsequent numerous bombs)! 'Tube' is not a very good movie!
** out of *****!
Basically, two bad guys take over a train, and hold the country ransom. A renegade detective who is has a past with the main bad guy, must work with the police and the rail system to try and save the hostages. The Korean equivalent to 'Under Siege 2'! From the opening scene, where the main villain somehow manages to thwart the entire police force unscathed, this is a hard film to take seriously! Not only is it fairly confusing as to what character did what to the other in the past, it has moments where you don't quite know what happened to the characters. Did some of the passengers of the train get killed during that huge shootout? Why didn't the hostages in the main carriage escape during the first big macho fight between protagonist and antagonist? Little things like that! Oh, and then a sub-character and his colleagues seem to take two thirds of the movie to re-act to that sub-character's love interest being one of the hostages? Oh, and the police force don't seem to acknowledge any loss of life when planning their next move. But the main problem I had with this film, is that it was climax overkill. Every time, our hero seemed to stop something bad from happening, there was another introduction of a plot element that wasn't established. Trains almost colliding with each other, and the pressure is on the technical staff! The hero manages to thwart the train's weight making a bridge collapse with it's obstacles, then has to stop a bomb, and fight a bad guy (again, with obstacles), then the next plot point is introduced, and the other heroes have to divert the train from hitting a nuclear plant (ala obstacles). And then there is yet another climax after that. Like one reviewer noted, all you needed was something to hold down the weight of the lever in regard to that one! I was getting really bored of this movie towards the end. Plus, there a pointless scene where the hostages stand up to the bad guy, and it could have been totally cut, and it didn't furthur the plot at all. It was totally unnecessary cause it didn't add to the story thematically, or provide anything to the plot! That pretty much sums up how 'Tube' keeps piling unnecessary climatic moments, and it really over-kills the climax factor basically because they forgot to introduce many of the main elements beforehand (i.e. the rigged train to explode, and subsequent numerous bombs)! 'Tube' is not a very good movie!
** out of *****!