By the time it makes landfall, this incoherent production has blown itself out.
Typhoon (2006)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:7
Rotten:25
Average Rating:4.2/10
Consensus: A pseudo-political thriller on the fritz, Typhoon drowns in its own heavy handedness and silly acting.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong violence and brief language.
Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Theatrical Release:Jun 2, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $114,607
Synopsis: Hailing from South Korea, director Kyung-Taek Kwak (FRIEND) brings some explosive subject matter to the silver screen with TYPHOON. Kwak follows in the tradition of directors such as John Woo (HARD... Hailing from South Korea, director Kyung-Taek Kwak (FRIEND) brings some explosive subject matter to the silver screen with TYPHOON. Kwak follows in the tradition of directors such as John Woo (HARD BOILED) and Takashi Miike (DEAD OR ALIVE), molding a fast-paced action thriller that manages to divide its time between visceral set pieces and intriguing plot developments. Sin (Jang Dong-Gun) is from North Korea and still feels the effects of his parents' slaying at the hands of brutal South Korean tormentors, who refused to allow Sin's family to move into the country when he was a kid. Sin plans to destroy both North and South Korea in the ultimate act of vengeance, and his acquisition of some potentially deadly nuclear waste helps further his maniacal dreams. Jang Se-jong (Jung-Jae Lee) is a South Korean native whose naval training is called upon when he is given the task of tackling Sin, and director Kwak draws on a strong supporting cast to act out some explosive and bloody battles as the two men go head-to-head. Kwak takes the eyebrow-raising decision to have his cast speak in English for most of the film, and some of the lines could possibly have benefited from a little more work in the preproduction stage. But TYPHOON isn't meant to be Shakespeare, and audiences will surely revel in the on-screen pyrotechnics and death-defying stunt work that barely lets up from start to finish. [More]
Starring: Junh-Jae Lee, Dong-Kun Jang, Mi-Yeon Lee, David No
Starring: Junh-Jae Lee, Dong-Kun Jang, Mi-Yeon Lee, David No, David McInnis, Chatthapong Pantanaunkul
Studio: Paramount Classics
Get This Movie
Reviews for Typhoon
A muscular Korean thriller that hearkens back to the monolithic Hollywood blockbusters of a decade or so ago-but not in a good way.
what on paper just sounds like adrenaline-pumped nonsense turns out on screen to be a sensitive and surprisingly sombre study of the personal tragedies afflicting the divided Koreas.
Pure action-thriller adventure is ruined with an overly melodramatic second half.
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.
Typhoon is a goofy mess, plenty exhilarating in all the right spots, except for the character ones.
Anyone anxiously awaiting Under Siege 3 should be thrilled by this Korean bastard child of Michael Bay and Wolfgang Peterson ... at their worst.
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.
The action comes fast and thick, and the sentimentality reaches near-operatic proportions.
As mad as meth-fried badgers having shoes thrown at them... and makes about as much sense.
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.
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.
Typhoon aims high but misses the emotional mark in most instances, resulting in some awkward melodramatics.
[Jang Dong-gun]...is the main attraction, which almost compensates for the film's problems.
A testosterone-driven, Jerry Bruckheimer-style action film as overblown as its title suggests.
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.
Typhoon is an assembly-line thriller from South Korea that just as well could have been made in Hollywood.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 24% 24% | G-Force |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 90% 90% | District 9 |
| 86% 86% | 500 Days of Summer |
| 63% 63% | Extract |
| 06% 06% | All About Steve |
| 78% 78% | It Might Get Loud |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Fresh Links
Featured

Last week, MSN gave us their top 09 films. Now see what their favorites of the decade are!

Here's a list of the 50 best movies of 2009, according to the good people over at Moviefone.

Hollywood.com takes a stab at determining who in movies will be on Santa's naughty list in 2009.

TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.

Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic



