Believer [Sub: Eng]

The growing bodycount makes it that much harder to care, but the story is so hard to swallow that our disinterest almost works to its advantage by the end.

Perhaps my love for the original clouded my vision for this version, but damn if I didn't spend more time looking at my watch than I did at the screen.

Believer doesn't add up to much because Lee and Chung essentially tried to improve something that was already perfectly unsettling.

The action sequences are unspectacular but effective. "Believer" has a well-told, entertaining story...

Lee Hae-Yeong's gripping retelling of Johnnie To's "Drug War"...stands on its own and is different enough from the original to make it less a clone and more of a genuflection.

Johnnie To's gritty mainland crime epic "Drug War" (2012) is given a slick and mostly effective South Korean re-tooling in "Believer."

It looks great, feels expensive, and therefore occasionally feels like the glossier younger cousin of Drug War that's more handsome but not quite as smart.

Lee's film is slickly executed and packed with larger-than-life performances that, together, conjure a lurid and gleefully amoral world of crime and corruption.

These gangsters prove, almost without fail, to be homicidal monsters, and director Lee Hae-young (The Silenced) is as likely to celebrate their excess as he is to frame it as a failing.

Believer somewhat subscribes to the character types and recognizable tropes of the genre, the twists feel fresh enough and the tangled webs of drug world conspiracies are riveting enough to keep you on the edge of your seat.

...solid mainstream entertainment for those seeking slick production values, exciting action scenes, and an engaging storyline.

...Believer is a beautifully shot and paced action thriller.