Inside Men

When this movie first came out, the majority of viewers criticized it for being over-the-top, hyperbolized. They assessed: politics has its ugly side, but this is too "B," too Tarantino-ish. Well years later, it turns out the movie was PG and reality was much, much worse. This movie became a weird criteria for Koreans to pit reality against and therein lies its merit.

It's true what some of the reviewers said. The subtitles don't do the script justice and some background knowledge about Korean culture helps. And honestly, if you like simple stories... go watch something else?

Is it possible to bring those to justice that are as corrupt and evil as we imagine some to be? I'm not talking any conspiracy theories here, no I'm talking those who are corrupt because ... well you know money! And how to prove their guilt ... in the real world that is quite something to achieve and even if you do that, they mostly have so much power, they walk away with almost nothing to fear.

But this is a movie, so we can expect that at least there is a ... fighting chance of that happening one way or the other. No pun intended. And if you watch a movie about that, why not make it this Korean effort. When it comes to action and intriguing story, South Korea has quite the output. I can really highly recommend quite a lot of their movies. And since they won best movie at least years Oscars the awareness of their industry has been raised (finally). Not for the faint hearted and maybe predictable for quite a lot of people, this still can entertain quite a lot to say the least!

I personally think, if this movie was translated into English or other language in t he world, it would be pretty hard to deliver the message. It goes pretty deep that you would understand if you know the language and the culture. I see it could be boring and too stretched out but if you can't see the details, you should just stop watching this. You have to know the culture in order to understand this movie

Do you want to know more about Korean actors? Then this movie is exactly what you've been looking for. Including Hollywood-famous Byung-hun Lee, Korean actors in this movie presents overwhelming performances. However, this is the movie's strength and there's obvious downsides too (a lot). First, the storyline has a wrong tempo. Sometimes, it's too slow and sometimes it's too sudden. This causes a lack of suspense. Second, the clichés in this movie are quite troublesome. I don't know how foreign people would feel about them, but to Korean people those clichés are definitely overused and used only in one pattern in this movie. This makes the story quite predictable. Third, the message of this movie is in vain. The director should have given more thought about how to resolve social corruption or how to give an alert about it more effectively. Since the resolution shown in this movie is so simple (I won't tell more specifically. Just watch the movie), it sounds so empty. It just doesn't resonate in my mind Yes, in conclusion this movie is quite cheesy and has many flaws. But still, actors' performances are so amazing that they make this movie look well-made Crime/Thriller movie with authentic aura. Should you watch it? Well, if you are into Korean movies I would say 'definitely!'

Note: Check me out as the "Asian Movie Enthusiast" on YouTube, where I review tons of Asian movies.

A former political henchman seeks out revenge for being dropped by a ruthless politician. Meanwhile, a determined investigator tries to nail the politician himself, and a shady newspaper editor manipulates matters behind the scenes. This has a complex story that shifts back and forth in time, with a lot of maneuvering by a fairly large cast of characters, but the script is so cleanly written and presented that it is easy to follow after a brief period of adjustment by the viewer. It will take a bit of time, early on, to figure out which characters are aligned with whom, and how everyone is related. But that slight sense of confusion eventually dissipates and transforms into a totally immersive, entertaining experience because characters are properly developed, with decisions and motives that are fleshed out nicely.

Most of the players here are quite shady, so it's almost like rooting for the lesser of all evils, but it works really well because a few of these characters become more appealing as the film progresses. And that's one of the big positives that can be found in "Inside Men" – there's some multi-dimensionality to enjoy, which makes it easy to root for the protagonists that emerge from the pool of corrupt characters. On the other hand, you will find some of the others to be very dislikeable. The newspaper editor – in particular – is a real snake, and I was rooting against him the entire time.

This is one of those films that gets more gripping and intense as it moves along. It just gets better and better, with the entire final hour being flat-out awesome. There is a lot of dramatic tension that is earned and I was glued to my television screen to see what would happen next. I have seen a few online movie reviewers criticize the film for being conventional, which is true to a degree. It is a crime drama, after all, and it has some similarities to films that came before it. With that said, however, the nuance and complexity that is presented keeps the viewer off balance. I wasn't entirely sure how things were going to play out during the second half of this movie, which helped to keep things fresh.

There are a few recognizable faces here, but the big-man actor is Byung-hun Lee – who I'm sure you've seen elsewhere. He's been in popular Korean films such as "A Bittersweet Life", "The Good, the Bad, the Weird", "I Saw the Devil", and "Masquerade." His performance in "Inside Men" is one of his better outings, in my opinion. He's successful at portraying his character as intimidating, flawed, and endearing all at the same time. This guy is really good actor, but I wish he would stop wasting his time in American movies. I'm sure it's beneficial for him to try to break into Hollywood, but every single time I've seen him in a Hollywood film, he's been wasted. For example, I was looking forward to seeing him play the Terminator in that stupid Genisys movie, but he only had like 5 minutes of screen time. It's ridiculous.

In any case, I definitely recommend "Inside Men", which is one of the better crime dramas of the past decade. I did watch the 3-hour extended cut, which is 50 minutes longer than the theatrical cut. I'm not exactly sure what scenes are included in one but not the other, but I can say that the 3-hour cut is really good. There is a Region 3 DVD available with English subtitles, and that release includes both the theatrical and extended cut.