Asian Film Review: "Iris: The Movie" (아이리스 : 더 무비 / 아이리스 - 극장판 , 2010)

Imagine if you took a whole season of '24' and tried to boil it down into a two hour feature film.  That's basically exactly what 'Iris the Movie' is...  'Iris' was a 2009 Korean TV action-drama VERY similar to '24'... full of spies, double crosses and shoot outs... and they decided to make a film version including some alternate scenes and a simplified plot. 

Sometimes things look better on paper than they do in reality.  I think if you're a fan of the series, you'll find this too watered down, and if you're seeing the film for the first time (like I was), you'll feel like you're missing out on a lot of details and you're just getting the Cliff's Notes version of a story that is supposed to make more sense.

Anyway, I like Lee Byung-hun and Kim Tae-hee's overbite stopped bothering me after a while.  But no matter what it feels very 'TV' and not very cinematic despite the foreign location shoots and big explosions.  'T.O.P.' is in this one, but its almost like a cameo... and his character is frankly quite silly.  Go watch

'71: Into the Fire' for a much better role for him.

I recommend going for the series over this if you have the option.  4/10.

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