NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Majorthebys Charming and brutal

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

tenshi_ippikiookami High, but-really-too-high, building, check. A Christmas party, check. Too many people, check. Bad weather, but we don't care because the party is more important, check. Security measures not taken care of because, really, what is going to happen?, check. Father with little child that is in love with a co-worker, check. An experienced fireman that should not be working but-actually-really-has-to, check. Some people that just seem to be there to sacrifice themselves for the tearful moment, check.For anything else, lots of explosions."The Tower" is what the title says: A tower. On fire. With lots of people inside. The plot is kept to a minimum: people running around, things exploding, glass breaking, jumps, and an angel. From the very beginning you can probably tell to yourself what is going to happen, and probably even in which order. The characters are cartoon-ish, the effects just OK, and you probably have seen anything that happens a million times.Then, what makes "The Tower" so much fun? For starters it keeps things happening non-stop, so the two hours feel like a breeze (yes, even if everything is on fire). The acting is good, and you have lots of famous actors doing a really good job with the simple material they are handed: stern leader, comic relief, protective worker, desperate father, selfish major... And the direction is good and has a clear focus. All of this works to make a movie that is really fun and that will keep the viewer on the edge of their seat.

suite92 The film opens to the apartment of single father Dae-ho and his pre-teen daughter Hana. The weather prediction for Christmas is for above normal temperatures and no snow. Dae-ho tells Hana there will be snow, and makes it a promise. It's not a safe bet promising a child something for which you have no control.There's a big cast, with several story threads. There are the members of the fire department, including a new recruit, and a group of weary veterans. The cooking staff gets quite a few frames. There are representative inhabitants of the towers, families and businesses, and those who interface between tower management of the clients. There is a lot of money invested in the Tower, and a lot of liquidity used to keep it going.Early on, hanging weaknesses are made clear: some pipes had frozen, and sprinklers between floor 60 and floor 80 were rendered inoperable. The discoverer was told to re-prioritize on the Christmas party. A second group brings up an issue with the chairman of the managing company: there is a danger of a sudden updraft near the Tower. This would make helicopter flights near the Tower more risky. The Chairman asks to be put in touch immediately with the Commissioner of the relevant regulatory agency.Dae-ho and his co-worker Yoon-hee have a number of interactions. When Hana appears to be unhappy, Yoon-hee helps Dae-ho out.During the evening celebration, there are fireworks and helicopters flying nearby to provide a simulated snowfall. It all looks rather nice. People in and near the Tower are quite impressed. Hana is really happy that Dae-ho's promise came to pass.However, the updraft problem manifests, and a couple of the helicopters go out of control, resulting in crashes into the Tower. A fire starts an spreads rapidly. The other hanging weakness falls, since the fire started in levels between 60 and 80, where the sprinklers are blocked.Just about anything that can go wrong, does go wrong. There's a fire in the elevator well. Some of the elevators do not work. There is no way out for many. By chance, Yoon-hee and Hana are together, and they get rejected from riding the elevator in the well with the fire. Yoon-hee's observation and quick thinking save them when the fire bursts open the elevator door.The various story lines follow characters through the fires, falling architecture, rescue attempts, and difficult decisions made in trying circumstances. Who will survive? Will the idiots who set up the conditions that led to the disaster be taken to account?------Scores------- Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent.Sound: 6/10 Incidental music is florid, hyperbolic.Acting: 8/10 Well done for most characters in a big cast. A small minority were remarkably bad.Screenplay: 8/10 Combines a number of easily recognizable human traits: stupidity, avarice, cutting corners, courage, self-sacrifice, heroism. The exposition was good for the many difficult situations the characters faced.SFX: 10/10 Impressive.

geminiredblue Korean cinema, not too well-known outside of film festival circuits and high-minded movie lovers. THE TOWER, however, might just bridge that gap and introduce to the world what Korea has to offer. THE TOWER is pretty much one of those old disaster flicks, THE TOWERING INFERNO comes to mind, that's been updated. On Christmas Eve, a 100-story apartment building is celebrating the holiday season. However, trouble ensues when a passing helicopter crashes into it. Now residents are trapped by fires, without electricity, as rescue workers struggle to get them out before the tower collapses. Like in all disaster films, we're introduced to a large cast. Most of whom wind up dying. Of the main characters, they include a security guard desperately trying to reach his young daughter, heroic firefighters (one who'd prefer to put himself in danger rather than be home with his wife), and a group of Christians desperate for a miracle. The film is beautifully shot and directed, and every performance is spot-on. At turns heart-rending, tragic, comic and pulse-pounding, the viewer will not be let down. So if you haven't seen it yet, go rent it now and add it to your holiday list.

Alex Vojacek Is this a copy of Tower Inferno, most definitely.Is worse?. Actually no, it is better.The Tower Inferno was one of my favorites disaster movies and not because of the movie itself but for the topic at hand. I always had an eerie feeling of big tower buildings as much as planes. Human made things in such an impressive scale can fail and knowing technology all to well, this is a disaster scenery i'm usually more scared of.The Tower inferno was fun but tedious, The Tower is fun and exciting.IT is actually quite a shock, because the movie was incredible well directed, the first act was all too happy and did a good job in presenting the characters, the incident take its time to happen and this is a very good thing because it built suspense.But...By the time it happens, this movie is a thrill ride, it will not stop and it will keep you guessing what else is gonna fail, the scenery was breathtaking, the effects are incredible good, this is a big production and Koreans now show they can manage to do big movies like Hollywood, and as much fun as them.What I most like about this one is the emphasis on the fireman, I always found that profession to be the most honorable of all and this is very well displayed through the movie, they are respected, honored and put into a incredible good light through the movie.In contrast to American movies, the hero is not saving the day to be a hero, he does not wave flags like Americans, they just do their jobs, it is amazing how good this was captured on screen. The main leads all do their job very well and although there are some sentimental parts like in the majority of Korean movies, they are handled all too well and they just work.This movie is amazing, it has all the ingredients of the disaster movies, the director really did a superb job and I am sure you will have lots of fun with it.It is a copy of The Tower Inferno?, well, yes ! for the most part... SO WHAT?Americans do tons of re-re-remakes over and over again and nobody complains, it's not fair to do this to the Koreans, they managed to do a better Tower Inferno, by a long margin.Keep up the good work! Now I am incredible excited about the next production coming out of Korean Soil !Love it!