dbborroughs Korean action film from the makers of Shiri.That should be an indication that the film doesn't make a whole heck of sense while amping it up on the action.The plot has a transit cop duking it out with a super villain who is after a memory chip with incriminating evidence on it (the evidence is of government misdeeds not his own) To that end the bad guy ends up taking a subway train hostage.Think Speed, Money Train, the taking of Pelham 123, and die hard rolled into one. Think not American so a couple of American movie-isms don't play out.Did I like it? Yes and know. Unclear to a fault this is all about the macho battle between good and bad and the action that it breeds. The action is five star classic stuff. The sequences just build and build and build. Actually every sequence has the feel of the final battle between good and evil, and thats the problem the movie ends probably 19 times before it actually ends. My dad and I were watching this together and we wanted to go get something to drink but were going to wait until the approaching end, only to realize that we still had over 45 minutes left.Its good, hell the action is great, but the actions relentless amping up wears you down. In a weird way you feel as beaten up as our hero.I'm sure this would play better if the story made any real sense. As a narrative thread, and I do mean thread, its the sort of thing we've seen before. Unfortunately the devil is in the details and most if not all of the details are lacking or missing, so much so that I was frequently wondering why and who and how. Characters aren't developed so much as thrust fully clichéd upon the screen. Only the narrating love interest has any real depth to her and she disappears for sections of the film.Give it points for a couple of decidedly non-American twists-which I won't reveal since they are twists, but ultimately the story is needlessly oblique, which when coupled with the audience pounding action makes the film less than it should be.For action fans this is a must see, for the rest an okay time killer.6.5 out of 10, the pieces being better than the messy whole.

BA_Harrison 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.

flingebunt 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.

Jordan 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. **** / *****