The Tower - ("Towering Inferno" Remake)
Inky Binky
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PLOT:
Christmas Day—At Tower Sky, the ultra-luxurious landmark building complex, a “White Christmas” party is held to dazzle its equally high-end tenants and VIP guests. Dae-ho, the manager of the building and single father, is forced to cancel his plans with his daughter Ha-na on Christmas day to work the event. The party is in full swing with two helicopters spraying snow on the partygoers below, when suddenly, one of the helicopters crashes into the building and sets it ablaze. Young-ki is a legendary firefighter, throwing himself into the burning building to save the lives of strangers. Together, Young-ki and Dae-ho must fight to save the lives of everyone around them.
Most of us have seen the original 1974 version with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. I actually watched it a couple of months ago on Netflix so it's still fresh in my mind. It was AWFUL! It has aged badly and it's quite poor by today's standard.
Well "The Tower" is a South Korean remake and it is TERRIFIC! The story is essentially the same as the original except this time it's done better. Like most "disaster" films, this one takes awhile to get started (introducing each character and their stories) and it has its fair share of melodrama too (this is a korean film afterall). But once the action starts at the 30 minute mark it all gets pretty damn exciting. The visual FX is very good and the acting is fine except for some ill-advised attempt at comedy (Korean entertainment love mixing tragedy and comedy in their films & TV programs). A couple of the deaths are actually fairly gruesome - particularly one scene when people trapped in an elevator get "cooked". The film is nearly 2 hours long and I wasn't really expecting too much from it. But I really enjoyed it.
You can view the trailer for this film here: LINK
Christmas Day—At Tower Sky, the ultra-luxurious landmark building complex, a “White Christmas” party is held to dazzle its equally high-end tenants and VIP guests. Dae-ho, the manager of the building and single father, is forced to cancel his plans with his daughter Ha-na on Christmas day to work the event. The party is in full swing with two helicopters spraying snow on the partygoers below, when suddenly, one of the helicopters crashes into the building and sets it ablaze. Young-ki is a legendary firefighter, throwing himself into the burning building to save the lives of strangers. Together, Young-ki and Dae-ho must fight to save the lives of everyone around them.
Most of us have seen the original 1974 version with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. I actually watched it a couple of months ago on Netflix so it's still fresh in my mind. It was AWFUL! It has aged badly and it's quite poor by today's standard.
Well "The Tower" is a South Korean remake and it is TERRIFIC! The story is essentially the same as the original except this time it's done better. Like most "disaster" films, this one takes awhile to get started (introducing each character and their stories) and it has its fair share of melodrama too (this is a korean film afterall). But once the action starts at the 30 minute mark it all gets pretty damn exciting. The visual FX is very good and the acting is fine except for some ill-advised attempt at comedy (Korean entertainment love mixing tragedy and comedy in their films & TV programs). A couple of the deaths are actually fairly gruesome - particularly one scene when people trapped in an elevator get "cooked". The film is nearly 2 hours long and I wasn't really expecting too much from it. But I really enjoyed it.
The ending is a very eerie reminder of 9/11 with the tower collapsing and the dust enveloping part of the city. 
You can view the trailer for this film here: LINK
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Comments
I have ordered The Tower from Lovefilm and have been told that is it due to be delivered probably today. So, will watch it soon. Will let you know what I think when I see it.
"Starts off goofy with goofy characters,goofy humour and goofy grins.Goes on way too long with little or no gruesomeness and by the end you'll wish they all perish."
I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.
Some really great effects and action sequences. And I liked some of the characters too.
One thing though, some sequences were quite funny, and I am not sure whether they were meant to be. There again, Koreans have their ways, same as we do.
A really good enjoyable disaster movie.
Some of the humor fell flat but there's a couple of decent laughs in it. Particularly whenever the preacher and the firefighter had a scene together.
How close is this movie to the original? I understand the screenplay for The Towering Inferno was cobbled together from two source novels (The Tower and The Glass Inferno), so it would be interesting to know if there are any 'carryover' character from the original movie or either book in this one.
It's one of the film's inspirations, that's for sure, but it's not a remake. It was largely inspired by a real-life non-fatal disaster: the fire at the Wooshin Golden Suites, based in a wealthy area, in 2010. The director said the film was also inspired by the Sampoong Department Store collapse during the 1990s.
Edited:
A non-graphic video of the Wooshin fire http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=aa0_1285945712 Note: if you get an error message after you clicked on this link, just refresh the liveleaks video page.