Paul Magne Haakonsen If you enjoy disaster movies and found enjoyment in "Backdraft" then you should most definitely sit down and watch the South Korean movie "The Tower" (aka "Ta-weo"), because it far outshines "Backdraft".The story is about a disaster striking at a celebration in twin skyscrapers in South Korea. A group of people are trapped in the burning skyscraper and time is running out as the fire spreads like an ever-consuming hunger and the structure of the building is starting to give way. Firefighters struggle against impossible odds to save those trapped in the towering inferno.I will say that there are many similarities to the tragic events of 9-11, and as such, I don't doubt that not everyone will find enjoyment in "The Tower", or might actually find it distasteful. I, however, saw it as entertainment, nothing more, nothing less. It is only a movie after all.The CGI effects in "The Tower" were phenomenal and came off as quite realistic and believable. And that would be a deal breaker had the CGI been bad. A movie such as "The Tower" is heavily reliant on CGI effects for obvious reasons.There was a good flow to the storyline and director Kim Ji-Hoon managed to put together a captivating story and movie.The acting was good from everyone on the cast list, which really did help add to the overall enjoyment of the movie."The Tower" is well-worth watching, even if you don't particularly like Asian cinema.

Desertman84 The Tower a was remake of the 1974 American disaster classic,The Towering Inferno. It stars Mina Cho, Sang-kyung Kim, Sul Kyung-gu and Son Ye-jin. It is a disaster film that takes place in a 120-story luxurious landmark building called Tower Sky located at Seoul during Christmas Eve.The said film was definitely a great visual spectacle.Too bad that there is nothing more to it than that.The viewer will be definitely be amazed with the special effects and the CGI technology used in showing while the disaster unfolds to the point that one may feel that he gets an overdose on visual fireworks.Credit should definitely be given to Kim Ji-hoon for the amazing job he did in this film.Unfortunately.the special effects somewhat minimizes the emotions and the characterizations of the people involved in the story.The viewer may tend to overlook the story involved in the film and the great acting displayed by the talented Korean actors and actresses involved in the cast.Another thing that needs to be called out is the introduction of the characters involved in the screenplay during the first part of the film is overlong and somewhat cheesy.But nevertheless,it still manages to entertain despite its shortcomings.

moonrazer-487-184393 OK I'm a sucker for any movie with big red trucks with ladders and sirens so when I saw this on Netflix I thought I would scroll through if only just to look at the Korean fire appliances. I suspected from the description that this was going to be a remake or at least heavily influenced by the Towering Inferno. I wasn't wrong and it also appeared to have some Backdraft and Ladder 49 influences as well. The version I saw was subtitled and I can help but suspect that some of the movie was likely lost in translation. I think this is particularly true in some of the firefighter communications. I thought some of the acting early on at the fire station was over the top, but during the actual action sequences, it was believable even with the language barrier. Another influence that can't be missed is the similarity of this incident and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Some of the visuals were obviously inspired by the images of that day. The movie was well shot and the special effects were as good or better than the standard Hollywood movies of today. I saw the Towering Inferno in the theater in the early 70's and count it among one of my favorites along with Backdraft from the early 90's. But both of these films were pre 9/11 and it's interesting to see what a sky scraper disaster movie looks like post 9/11.

cremea The Tower: A 2012 Korean disaster movie.SPOILERS AHEAD!Story Summary: It's a Korean movie about a high rise tower going up in flames…What more do you really need to know?This movie hearkens back to the days when Hollywood made self contained disaster flicks on a regular basis; i.e. "Poseidon Adventure", the "Airport" (not "Airplane") movies, and the like…and, of course, the obvious comparison being "Towering Inferno". There's not a whole lot of variances afforded when you make a film like this…After all, it's a disaster film in a ship, building, plane, or what have you, so, it's basically just try to mitigate the damage ,save as many people as you can, and see who (if anybody) makes it out alive. What you can do though, is try to have the viewers invest in some of the characters, provide an engrossing film with a decent enough story, some nice pacing & action, and, not make your stunts & effects look like crap…Does this film succeed on those fronts?...Yeah, pretty much.Everything centers around the buildup to the Christmas celebration at the fabulous Sky Towers buildings. The first 30 minutes of the film or so are devoted to introducing the people who'll be the integral players in the disaster to come, they include; various hotel & building employees, some guests and love interests, the firemen who show up on the scene, some side groups, and the kid (gotta have a kid involved; this is a mandatory disaster movie rule). There's some ominous foreshadowing about high winds and a busted sprinkler system along the way, but screw it; let's send in the helicopters to drop fake snow on the buildings to appease our VIP guests as planned…What could possibly go wrong here?OK, it's holiday party time!…Where are those snow dropping helicopters?...Oh, here comes one now!…Uh-oh!...What was that about the strong winds and a bad sprinkler system again?...From there, this is Disaster Movie 101, and, it's pretty entertaining for the most part.This movie is what it is…it's basically a popcorn action flick with little room for much else. The entire cast does a fine enough job, but there's not much for them to do past the ¼ mark other than run for their lives. There are some decent action set pieces where the characters have to escape the flames while traversing various floors & elevator shafts, navigate sky walks & scaffolding before they collapse, etc...This is all done with a fairly solid mix of live action, stunt work, and CGI. You also get your standard dose of Korean melodrama along the way (of course), but, it's not really any more melodramatic than those old American disaster flicks mentioned above; this movie really does play just like those films, except it's more modern and from a different country.Bottom Line: It works well enough overall!...If you're looking for a fantastic story & dialogue driven Korean film, then, this ain't for you!...But, if you want to just chill and watch a decent action/disaster flick from Korea, then, this will probably fit the bill!I think it's in the 6-7, out of 10 star, range!...Eh!…I'll give it 7 stars!