The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil

The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil pulls off its familiar twists and turns with style and verve.

Like so many of the genre that hail from Seoul and its suburbs, this one punches well above its weight with an inventive reworking of well-worn plot tropes and slick production values.

There's not much going on beneath the energetic surface, but for the most part The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil is a fast-paced, entertaining thriller buoyed by two engaging leads. Don't mess it up in translation, Sly.

A solid, if not quite exceptional, time-passer.

Yes, it's car crashes and fight sequences and dry jokes, but it's a mix that will make you wow, wince and guffaw in just the right amounts, all carried off with a gritty style.

It's the less animated moments where "The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil" struggles.

"The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil" is not a great film, but it's watchable because its star is Ma Dong-seok. The burly actor stars as a mob boss whose street credibility takes a beating when he is nearly killed by a floppy-haired serial killer.

Action-packed thriller from South Korea about partnerships and competition in hunting a killer; a perfect film from Lee Won-tae apart from a few clichés.

Energetic and all the better for its sensible running time, though nothing new, it's an enjoyable film, if one that would have been improved by not pulling so many punches

What attracts me immediately is that it combines the action thriller with the cop story in a new way and, incidentally, solidly handles the conventions of gangster cinema. [Full review in Spanish]