The Tunnel

A lean, enjoyable disaster story that happily spends more time focusing on character than spectacle, though visual effects are impressive.

Infusing its nightmarish scenario with bracing doses of satirical humor, Tunnel is smarter and more sophisticated than most Hollywood attempts at the genre.

There's not enough story here to warrant the film's more than two-hour running time; 90 taut minutes tracking a week in the ruined tunnel would have sufficed. Still, it's a vivid and relatable tale.

[There's] a lot to juggle, and Kim handles it effectively while delivering, bottom line, a harrowing spectacle that makes one forget to breathe.

South Korean cinema contributed the summer's best action film with Train to Busan, a kinetic kick of a zombie thriller. Tunnel doesn't quite do the same for the disaster genre, but it's a well-made, suspenseful and surprisingly moving twist on a formula.

A thoroughly engaging drama that is peppered with both improbably dark humour and pungent attempts at social commentary.

Tunnel succeeds on three fronts: making its life-or-death scenario feel urgent and immediate, fleshing out its characters and garnering a genuine emotional impact.

Simultaneously smart and populist viewing, and a great example of the genre.

Subtlety clearly isn't a forte for writer-director Kim Seong-hoon, whose last film was the cop thriller A Hard Day. Then again, Kim's not after subtlety here. He's making an angry polemic against the state of his nation.

Most disaster epics, even the silliest, manage to entertain, as does this one, but with intelligence and a compassionate focus on the feelings of the people most affected.

You absolutely devour Jung-soo's journey in Tunnel. Tunnel is one of the most compassionate films of the year with a horrifically executed disaster and an emotional powerhouse odyssey overall.

If only Hollywood's blockbusters could be even half as gripping, smart and emotionally engrossing as Tunnel!