A good try, but utterly repetitive.

Rating: 5/10 (18 March 2007)

I had high expectations for this movie, maybe a bit too high. Hearing that it rivals Saving Private Ryan I had to see it for myself. First things first, it brings along a talented cast, the actor who played Jin-Tae gave a strong performance. The special effects are also a plus. Though not all was great in this film.
The number one killer for this movie is repetitiveness. I got the fact that the brothers cared for each other, but there was way too many repetitive scenes. After so many scenes of arguments among brothers, the character Jin-Seok starts to be just downright bratty and annoying. All that overacting doesn't help either. Those were not the only repetitive scenes though, check out the mêlée and fist fighting scenes, dragging out so darn long it became a bore, just watch the last scene where the brothers fight. Not only do they hit each other about a couple dozen times with their fists, they start hitting each other with the end of a rifle butt, but yet they still stand and do the same for the next 5 minutes. Right.....
The battle scenes themselves were well done, despite its repetitiveness. Again, there's only so many different ways a person could jerk every time hes shot, punched, or blown up.
Overall its a good movie, but nowhere near perfect. I especially hated the fact that years pass in every other scene, not to mention that they come up in such a sudden fashion. One scene has the brothers sitting down and talking about their home, and then SUDDENLY its 1951 and they are yet AGAIN in the MIDDLE of a battle. Now I understand that for the movie to play out with their script, they would have to do that. Still, this story would be best told through a mini-series, not a film.
Movie Moment: Jin-Tae pulling a grenade pin with his teeth with ease. This is technically almost impossible giving the fact that it requires a large amount of force and a strong grip. Of course, it looks cool right?