Gwangbokjeol teuksa

Gwangbokjeol teuksa, or "Jail Break", is a terrifically funny film with some great performances, including the lovable idiot played by Sol Kyung-gu who also recently had a very fine performance in the award winning "Oasis".

The film is entirely silly but manages to maintain an air of class. There are also a couple of director's nods to "The Shawshank Redemption" which are enjoyable if not subtle.

When I was in Seoul, my cousin recommended this to me and pointed out that it was a "buddy comedy". I wasn't expecting much but found myself laughing riotously.

The characters are all crazy. They fit right in an anime series somewhere with their odd, yet, approachable quirks. The plot is rather straight forward which makes this movie so twisted because of the goofy characters. The dialogue kills me. They're all mad. Each and every one of them.

This is a comedy so you'll have to suspend your belief at times otherwise you'll overanalyze and probably miss the joke, altogether. I won't get too ahead of myself and give away anything but if you're looking to have a laugh and you're ok with dealing with a bunch of goofballs running, driving, digging mad across your screen, this one should do the trick.

8/10

Forget the fact that most of this film is implausible. Forget the fact that all the characters are typical and can be seen in any other Korean comedy. Forget the fact that their personliaties are inconsistent throughout the film. And forget the fact that you're probably paying money one way or another to watch this. Once the movie gets going it really isn't that bad. Laughs are few and far in between at first but you might be pleasantly surprised if you manage to stay with it. When the story came together and the hysteria turned up a notch, I developed an appreciation for the characters because their frantic behaviour started to fit in. I wouldn't want them any other way. If you're not too picky Gwangbokjeol teuksa can make you laugh. Hey, you might end up enjoying it.

A hilarious slapstick farce from South Korea. Director Sang-Jin Kim managed to sustain a frenetic pace for the entire two hours, making the film seem much shorter. He also made excellent use of the anamorphic frame. The actors uniformly delivered funny performances, not great acting but perfect for this type of film. I haven't enjoyed a comedic film this much in ages.

I can't tell you how let down I was by this movie. We all wanted to turn it off within 45 minutes. The two leads play jailbirds who plot an escape that ends up having unintended consequences both for themselves and for their jailers. The humor is terribly unfunny, and the characters are completely uninteresting and unlikeable. The bigger loser of the two, and his intensely annoying and unpleasant girlfriend were particularly painful to watch. In a better movie, the Shawshank homages would have been clever or funny, but here they were just a reminder of how lame this movie was in comparison to better projects.

This came as a particular surprise given that the director is the same man who brought us the fantastic and original Attack the Gas Station, and the near-brilliant (though tragically-flawed) Kick the Moon. I thought the man exuded humor and quirky moments, but apparently he can make a piece of hack work like anyone else. Too bad. I would think that perhaps the humor didn't translate well from Korean, except his previous two movies were hilarious. Here's hoping this was just a fluke, and he has years of great movies left in him.