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Typhoon
Metascore
46 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 16
  3. Negative: 4 out of 16
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  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    70
    Ambitious and impressive, both in its provocative themes and superb production design using striking sets and locations in Korea, Russia and Thailand, this handsome epic amply rewards audiences willing to go the distance.
  2. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    70
    A few others have compared this to a James Bond movie, but it's more of a piece with a Tom Clancy movie; it never leaves the real world that far behind, it has a fair sense of documentary reality, and the action sequences -- from shootout to car chase to a commando takedown of a tanker on the high seas to a final knife fight -- are extremely well managed.
  3. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    70
    Eventually develops into a pleasantly bombastic Bond-style adventure.
  4. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    63
    An international caper with James Bond and Tom Clancy overtones - and Austin Powers undertones, too.
  5. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    63
    The action come fast and thick, and the sentimentality reaches near-operatic proportions.
  6. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    63
    Eventually, Typhoon succumbs to the usual special-effects bombast and plot overkill.
  7. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    50
    As silly movies go, this one is at least pretty exciting. But in the end, Typhoon leaves you feeling as exiled from the two Koreas as Sin is.
  8. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: G. Allen Johnson
    50
    Kwak is indeed a highly original voice, but you wouldn't know it from Typhoon. It seems as if he's constrained by the conventional material.
  9. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: David Chute
    50
    The movie is executed by director Kwak Kyung-Taek with flair, technical polish and tumescent firepower that the shriveled cinemas of Hong Kong and Japan can no longer match. But every gesture feels synthetic, from the back story about North-South separation to massage the emotions of the home audience, to the 24-style globe-hopping nuclear-terrorism premise.
  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Laura Kern
    50
    Typhoon aims high but misses the emotional mark in most instances, resulting in some awkward melodramatics. Even so, it flourishes during its well-executed action sequences and commands attention almost instantaneously, though, in the end, it will be forgotten just as quickly.
  11. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    50
    This may be the biggest production in Korean-film history, but viewers should search elsewhere for a better sampling of what the country has to offer.
  12. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Frank Scheck
    40
    While a huge hit in its native country, is neither arty nor truly thrilling enough to greatly impress American audiences.
  13. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    38
    An exhausting combination of generic thriller, political tract and sentimental weepie.
  14. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    25
    Mainstream moviegoers will be put off by the subtitles, and art-house fans will be insulted by the story's shallowness.
  15. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    25
    The humorless and self-important execution attempts an operatic scale but only succeeds in sinking the remnants of the story's integrity. By the time it makes landfall, this incoherent production has blown itself out.
  16. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    20
    A cheap-looking action movie that sabotages itself at almost every turn.
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