InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Siflutter
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Ella-May O'Brien
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
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.
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.
trashgang
Blah blah blah, is this a remake of The Towering Inferno (1974). For me it isn't, it's not because a disaster is taking place in a building that it is a remake of an old classic. But this flick here isn't for everybody because if you can't stand Asian flicks than stay away from this.The way the acting is and the way characters are talking to each other doesn't add towards the easiness to watch this flick. Just see how the boss of the tower and the workers are handling towards each other. But on the other hand this isn't really a disaster flick, it's more an ode to the fire brigades risking their life every day. Not that it was all that bad, the effects used were sublime. And there is suspense throughout the whole movie. There was even the typical Asian humour to see. But at the end of the day I thought that it would contain a bit of those Asian gore in it but it wasn't. It's not a bad movie and you will have flashbacks to the 9/11 event like people jumping out of the building and when the tower collide, well, if you were all ready there on 9/11 you will have some memories.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 4/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5
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!