Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

One of the best films i have seen

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

THE TUBE is a slice of South Korean action cinema that owes a great debt to Hollywood action films of the 1990s; it has little of its own look or style and for the most part seems content to emulate American movies instead of carving out a niche for itself. It's a pity, because more recently, Korea has been making some highly distinctive thrillers, such as THE MAN FROM NOWHERE and THE YELLOW SEA, with a look and feel all of their own; this is nothing like them.This film follows a typical template which sees a disgruntled terrorist deciding to take a train full of commuters hostage. The Korean police and special forces are typically useless, so it falls to a rather bland detective to tackle the menace single-handedly. Along the way, there's time for a little light romance with the distinctive Doona Bae, and some unwelcome, rather broad comedy.The problem with this film is that the action is just so lacklustre. Nothing happens that we haven't seen before, and some dodgy green-screen effects don't help to add to the experience. There's a distinct lack of effort and realism which becomes apparent as the storyline progresses, and never any real danger to the proceedings; you just don't care about the lives at stake. The poignant ending feels cynical and manipulative in the extreme, and the movie as a whole is entirely forgettable.

The Tube is an overlong, cliché-ridden Korean movie that steals liberally from many a better film in an attempt to appeal to an international market. Combining elements of Die Hard, Under Siege 2, Lethal Weapon The Taking of Pelham 123, Silver Streak, Speed and countless other action classics, the film ends up as a tedious mess which, like the train it features, rushes headlong towards disaster .Jay (Seok-hun Kim) is a tough cop who lives life on the edge after the death of his wife. When a terrorist named T hijacks a subway train full of passengers (which includes our hero's romantic interest, Kay, played by Du-na Bae) and threatens to explode a bomb, Jay risks life and limb to get on board and rescue the passengers (fortunately, Jay is actually a superhero possessing incredible supernatural powers of strength and durability. How else could the makers explain his amazing ability to constantly jump onto, fall off, and hang underneath speeding trains without coming to harm?).From the confusing gun-battle at the beginning, to the explosive finale, director Baek Woon-Hak shows that he has no idea how to shoot a cohesive action scene or tell a decent story. Action set-piece after action set-piece is thrown at the viewer with absolutely no sense of pacing. Just as we think we have reached the inevitable end of the film, Jay is given yet another obstacle to overcome before he can save the day; hell, this film has more climaxes than 'Monsterfacials.com: The Movie'!!With a downright dumb ending in which the hero needlessly sacrifices his life to save everyone else on the train (tie down the damn lever and jump off the train—how difficult is that?), this film is a way-below-par big-budget offering from a country that has recently given us so much great cinema: Oldboy, JSA, Three Extremes, Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance and My Sassy Girl.

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.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS This movie was okay up until the end, although I had a distinct feeling of deja vu watching many of the scenes, but couldn't someone have offered their pants or belt or something so Jay could have tied down that lever? It wasn't like it took a lot of effort to keep it down and a strong guy had to use all his muscles to prevent it from popping back up again. He pretty much just held it down with one finger while he messed with his cigarette. Why was he always hanging out in the subway terminal anyway? What was the guy with the gum wanted for? How did Kay know so much about Jay? So many questions, so little story.