'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.

TUBE (2003): While I can't highly recommend it, it is kind of fun, provided you don't think too much about the plot, which has a walking stereotype loose-canon cop (Kim Seok-hoon) battling a terrorist (Pak Sang-min) onboard a hijacked subway train. The terrorist is a former government eraser that the government tried, but failed, to erase, and he's taken the train, and Seoul's mayor, hostage to uhh, well, to apparently have the plan be doomed from the start. Equal parts SPEED, TAKING OF PELHAM 123, MONEY TRAIN and DIE HARD, the film has few pretensions, which make it easy on the derriere. Poor Bae Doo-na gets one of the stranger film roles in film history, as a pickpocket who apparently knows she must LOVE the hero even before she KNOWS the hero, and creates all the necessary Korean histrionics along the way (as well as almost bearing more physical brutality than the hero!) while our glowering protagonist poses with a series of unlit cigarettes in his mouth (and which only one person will ever be allowed to light, care to guess who?). The SPEED and TAKING OF PELHAM allusions are apt, as are slight nods to MONEY TRAIN (the hero's boss does his best crazy Robert Blake impersonation) and DIE HARD (or UNDER SIEGE 2 if you'd rather, since it's so blatantly name-checked on the U.S. package), but overall it's a victim of it's own weak (and often downright ridiculous) logic and begs a few too many questions. The lovely Bae Doo-na plays one of the most strangely motivated characters I've ever seen in a motion picture. Production wise, though, it's delivers the goods, with slick production values all the way, with some nicely handled chase and fight scenes. Turns out, if I read the docu-stuff on the Korean 2-disc set correctly, that the Korean subway trains don't even look as hi-tech as they do here, and the ones in the film were almost entirely CG apart from the sets for close-ups! Columbia Tri-Star's sleeve is highly reminiscent of the art for TRANSPORTER and, not entirely unexpectedly, substitutes a generic Asian face for that of star Kim Seok-hoon. I give it a 4.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsCop Jay is intent on busting criminal mastermind .T.When he hi-jacks an underground train,he finds the perfect opportunity to make this happen.This slow and overlong action thriller takes nearly two hours to tell a story that could have been wrapped in an hour and a half.For an action film,said action is not exactly in plentiful supply either.It's intriguing (for me,anyway) and certainly very nice to catch a slice of Oriental action cinema,but when it's something so ultimately perfunctory and ordinary,it just ends up feeling so much more pointless.If you want to watch an action thriller set on board a train,rent Under Siege 2 with Steven Seagal,it's far superior.**

Taking a dose from "Speed", "The Rock", and "Die Hard", the South Korean movie TUBE is just your average shoot'em up and blow'em up actioner. It takes its cues more from your average Hollywood summer fare, with an outrageous premise and a variety of cliches only possible in similar silly action movies.TUBE has going for it an intriguing villain, but the hero is not quite so interesting, even if the film spends more than 25 of the first 30 minutes on his back story. The character of the girl who falls in love with the hero and basically stalks him around south Korea is a bit disturbing, mostly because it's so silly and unbelievably "kiddie" stuff.Not to say that TUBE isn't a worthwhile movie. It has its share of exciting action set pieces, but for the most part the film lacks brain cells, which isn't much of a surprise for action movies. And yet, TUBE just doesn't seem to understand that criminal masterminds don't leave a spunky girl alive even after she's fouled up his plan for the 50th time. Outrageously silly.5 out of 10