When I was looking to buy the film and reading official reviews around the net, many reviewers likened the film to Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. Unfortunately, the similarities are only in the concept. Four assassins that are friends and live together struggle with the conflicts of their job and their personal lives and all the shenanigans that ensue. Sure, I could see QT or GR pitching it, but that is where the similarities end.

You don't get the trademark QT dialogue or the hyper-stylized, ultra cool GR universe. It's far more low key than that, and also a bit more straightforward. People have been disappointed because it didn't have ultra-slick camera work and larger-than-life characters like a Woo film. But this film isn't trying to do any of those things. Reviewers just like getting their reviews quoted, so by sticking some popular movie titles or director names in their review, it gives the review a better chance of being used. Okay, enough about that.

The movie is very good. It is funny. There are some memorably funny moments, despite reading the subtitles or listening to the dub. The humor does translate well. There is a lot of subtle humor that you have to be paying attention to catch, it's not just a bunch of sight gags. They do some interesting things with the voice over, as well as using multiple screen panels to show lapsing of time and potential actions. Very creative.

The story itself is interesting and we see the four main characters interact with each other and their jobs, all the while hiding pieces of their personal lives, some mixing business and pleasure, and how their friendships make them stronger. It's also nice to see how the different personalities affect how they perform their assassin duties. They all have their own style.

There are some great scenes. The Hamlet scene is truly magnificent. The music mixed with the imagery and the action is just an absolutely fantastic scene that will stick with you long after the movie is over. It's not so big as to overshadow the entire movie, but it is a standout. This is the movie that "The Big Hit" could have been if "The Big Hit" wasn't so bad.

The Koreans have really been on a tear making some great movies. From "The Host" to the Vengeance Trilogy ("Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance", "Oldboy", "Lady Vengeance") and this film, Korean cinema has really stepped up in the new millennium.

So if you're looking for an action/comedy that really is funny, has some cool action, is a great story, but never takes itself too seriously, this is one of the best.

Narrated by the youngest member of the group, an annoying and effeminate Won Bin, Guns & Talks starts off with a hit, as the four work together to take out a few mob bosses. Their assassination methods aren't of the John Woo variety, however; instead, these guys use poisonous gas and other tricks to kill their targets. Only the sniper resorts to old-fashioned shootings, and in the opening we're treated to one of those "bullet time" effects as we follow his bullet through the parking lot and to its target.

After that, the plot kicks in, with each of the assassins (save for the sadly-underused sniper) getting his own story. There's also a police inspector who has it in for the guys, as they murdered his prime witness in a case against a high-level thug. What follows is a multi-leveled story filled with a few comedic moments, lots of dialog, some sappy melodrama, and gorgeous cinematography.

I can't say that it all works perfectly, though. Like most Korean movies, Guns & Talks is just too long for it's own good. And I've never been one for voice-over narration. You can moan about how "dumbed down" Hollywood is until you're blue in the face, but I still think Asian movies can even be worse. Guns & Talks is a case in point, as the prettyboy narrator feels that he must explain each and every thing to you in the most minute detail. The ending is a perfect example of this, as the hit men's boss (Shin Hyun Jun) and the police inspector (Jeong Jin Young) have their final showdown in the local precinct. The inspector refuses to kill or arrest Jun, and any fool with a walnut-sized brain would understand why. However, the narrator spells it out for us, and it just feels cheap and unnecessary.

What keeps this from being an action extravaganza is the fact that the hit men must kill their targets in the exact method desired by their clients. For example, they must blow the left hand off of a target, and on another job they must blow a target up. So there aren't any gun fights or elaborate action scenes in this movie, which is a shame. There aren't even that many gadgets, even though these guys have a gadget-making, "Q"-type uncle who whips together devices for them.

The music is probably the most annoying factor in the mix. It blares over the action and dialog at any possible moment. What makes this bad is the fact that the music sounds like rejected elevator muzak. Not sure if any viewers have noticed, but the central theme of Guns & Talks is basically a rip-off of Herbie Hancock's early '80s hit "Rockit." It was stuck in my head for days after I watched the film.

There are good points about the movie, though. For example, during one of the sappier moments, in which Won Bin relates to the other hit men the effects of being in love, he mistakes the other hit men's laughter for swells of emotion. The payoff for this scene is done very well, because at first we don't know the others are laughing, and we're left thinking that the director's trying to shove this maudlin dialog down our throat. There's also a cool assassination set-up during a play, but the resolution is terrible. Before the hit, the guys worry over how they'll escape after they do the job. Yet we never see how they actually do manage to escape.

In the end, Guns & Talks is just an okay movie. It doesn't have enough action or suspense to thrill action fans. It isn't consistently funny enough for the comedy fans. It doesn't have enough drama for the drama fans. It doesn't have enough romance for the girly-men or the ladies. Actually, it tries to embrace all of these separate genres, but doesn't manage to gel them together into a coherent, fulfilling whole.

The movie's a bit too sappy at parts, and the ending is saccharine beyond belief (picture this: an armed hit man walks into a police precinct, shoots a few things, and walks out without a scratch). Some of the plot threads don't have much of a resolution (such as the surly hit man's blooming romance with a pregnant, would-be target; the first half of the film makes you think this will be an important part of the story, but the thread is basically dropped halfway through). The comedy doesn't always work, and the melodrama gets doled out pretty thick; but then again, this seems to be the standard for most Korean movies, and I figure those people who really like them will be expecting this.