Typhoon 2005

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Read more

Laura Kern, New York Times: Typhoon aims high but misses the emotional mark in most instances, resulting in some awkward melodramatics. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: It loses its sense of political urgency by relying on melodramatic cliches (the bad guy has a dying sister) and rhythms that are all too familiar from the big-budget American films it sets out to emulate. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Ambitious and impressive, both in its provocative themes and superb production design using striking sets and locations in Korea, Russia and Thailand, this handsome epic amply rewards audiences willing to go the distance. Read more

David Chute, L.A. Weekly: Every gesture feels synthetic, from the back story about North-South separation to massage the emotions of the home audience, to the 24-style globe-hopping nuclear-terrorism premise. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: A reasonably entertaining, very Korean take on the kind of stuff Jerry Bruckheimer produces by reflex -- and that's in no way an insult to either Bruckheimer or Typhoon. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Studiously avoiding the sort of eccentricities that have made recent Korean films so exciting, it's simply copycat Hollywood cinema, trumpeting its budget while rushing to another explosion. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: An exhausting combination of generic thriller, political tract and sentimental weepie. Read more

G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle: In Typhoon, there are plenty of guns being fired in front of the camera, but behind it [director] Kwak apparently had his safety catch in place. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The movie delivers the same old American action-flick themes of catastrophe narrowly averted, but the Korean version alters the meaning from triumph to sorrow. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Like a poor mana(TM)s Tony Scott movie. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: Caught up in a triple vortex of poor scripting, unexciting action and leads you couldn't care less about, the pic boasts good production values but little else. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: It has a fair sense of documentary reality, and the action sequences -- from shootout to car chase to a commando takedown of a tanker on the high seas to a final knife fight -- are extremely well managed. Read more