An old saying maintains “Never put the cart before the horse,” an observation whose implications should be obvious. That applies in filmmaking, too: When a standalone production is thought to be the inspiration for a new franchise, the creators need to be careful not to get ahead of themselves. That’s to say that the first film in the proposed series absolutely must be a knock-out to earn the right to a sequel (or…

The discovery of a badly mauled cow is quite perplexing for the local police chief (Hwang Jung-min), especially when a few of his wise-cracking citizens suggest it might have been caused by a marauding tiger! It doesn't take him long to realise that whatever it is, it's a great deal bigger and more menacing than a cat as he returns to town and finds scenes of death and destruction with gunfire sounding regularly.…

*Hope* is one of the most well-rounded action thrillers of the year. The clunky ending does drop its otherwise action-packed masterpiece status down slightly, but *Hope* effortlessly blends so many genres with stellar performances, impressive gore, and intensely riveting action sequences. https://bit.ly/NaHopejin

This is a really bad day for Hope Harbor. You build tension in movies by the characters being relatable and putting them in peril that you can understand. This movie does this exceedingly well because you can tell just how terrified the characters are of what is going on around them. It effectively builds the tension and you get very engaged in what is happening. The movie shifts tonally a few times and yet…