Tube

The Tube is a name for London Underground. It has been badly underfunded or years and is falling apart. Apparently you are never more than 9 yards from a rat when on the Underground!

It was also a "groovy" 80's TV pop music programme fronted by Jools Holland and Paula Yates

tty = T = tube time

tube

1. n. A CRT terminal. Never used in the mainstream sense of TV; real hackers don't watch TV, except for Loony Toons, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Trek Classic, the Simpsons, and the occasional cheesy old swashbuckler movie. 2. [IBM] To send a copy of something to someone else's terminal. "Tube me that note?"

--Jargon File, autonoded by rescdsk.

Year: 2003
Directed by: Baek Woon-Hak
Runtime: 112 minutes
Genre Keywords: Action
Starring:

Seok-hun Kim  ... Jay	
Du-na Bae     ... Kay
Sang-min Park ... T

I had a grand theory when I watched this flick, one brought on by too much vino and simple tiredness. I had a theory wherein all the parts fit perfectly and everything made a lot of sense, like that one time I O.D.'ed on psilocybe mushrooms ... the next day, it really wasn't all that brilliant.

The theory was that Tube was a schematic, a blueprint, an outline of a movie. Each element of it was a pure element of light kitsch cinematography, each overly dramatic moment twanging slightly on the nerves connected to good taste, each actor an archetype of sophomoric script-writing rather than an individual, each mannerism and behavior forcibly hammered into shape so that it would fit the overall theme of Dramatic Action Movie.

As I said, the next day it didn't seem all that brilliant. But those of you with more refined film senses might want to avoid this film, as under the influence of Bacchus my usually dull aesthetic sense sharpened itself to such a point that the movie was nearly unwatchable.

It wore off, fortunately.

More to the point, Tube is a very straightforward cop and villain movie straight out of Hollywood, as rendered by a Grade A Student of Hollywood Cliches, that gets where all the bits of an Action Movie go, but doesn't quite understand why. Added are the mutual hatred motive (rendered in loving slo-mo multiple times in the film), love interest, a comic relief, a Reluctant, Grizzled Advisor, a Scheming Politician ... I mean, you see the pattern start to emerge here, I might as well start typing in capitals. This movie really does seem to tend toward the archetypal, in plot and in character development. For crying out loud, the main characters are letters. Coincidence that J and K are next to each other? I bet J's wife's name was "I"...

The payoff is some fairly slick subway (the Tube itself) gunplay action and not much else. If you want an Action Movie, watch this. Just try not to trip over all the Capital letters and a really, really bad ending that might be considered poignant if it wasn't so bad.

Final Conclusion? Go watch Speed, instead. Or even just its last few minutes that occur in the subway. It's funnier, more suspenseful, and resolves in a marginally less stupid way (Oh no! A wall! Let's accelerate!).

Tube (?), n. [L. tubus; akin to tuba a trumpet: cf F. tube.]

1.

A hollow cylinder, of any material, used for the conveyance of fluids, and for various other purposes; a pipe.

2.

A telescope. "Glazed optic tube." Milton.

3.

A vessel in animal bodies or plants, which conveys a fluid or other substance.

4. (Bot.)

The narrow, hollow part of a gamopetalous corolla.

5. (Gun.)

A priming tube, or friction primer. See under Priming, and Friction.

6. (Steam Boilers)

A small pipe forming part of the boiler, containing water and surrounded by flame or hot gases, or else surrounded by water and forming a flue for the gases to pass through.

7. (Zoöl.)

(a)

A more or less cylindrical, and often spiral, case secreted or constructed by many annelids, crustaceans, insects, and other animals, for protection or concealment. See Illust. of Tubeworm.

(b)

One of the siphons of a bivalve mollusk.

Capillary tube, a tube of very fine bore. See Capillary. --
Fire tube (Steam Boilers), a tube which forms a flue. --
Tube coral. (Zoöl.) Same as Tubipore. --
Tube foot (Zoöl.), one of the ambulacral suckers of an echinoderm. --
Tube plate, or Tube sheet (Steam Boilers), a flue plate. See under Flue. --
Tube pouch (Mil.), a pouch containing priming tubes. --
Tube spinner (Zoöl.), any one of various species of spiders that construct tubelike webs. They belong to Tegenaria, Agelena, and allied genera. --
Water tube (Steam Boilers), a tube containing water and surrounded by flame or hot gases.

 

© Webster 1913

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Tube, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tubed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Tubing.]

To furnish with a tube; as, to tube a well.

 

© Webster 1913

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Tube (?), n. (Elec. Railways)

A tunnel for a tube railway; also (Colloq.), a tube railway. [Chiefly Eng.]

 

© Webster 1913