Good lord this movie is pretty **** awesome. Screw Cloverfield & King Kong, baby! The monster shows up in the first 10 minutes! It's a great combination of comedy, dramatic horror & even a touch of satire. I don't want to overplay the...
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Good lord this movie is pretty **** awesome. Screw Cloverfield & King Kong, baby! The monster shows up in the first 10 minutes! It's a great combination of comedy, dramatic horror & even a touch of satire. I don't want to overplay the comedy elements, which ARE great, but it's like the Korean equivalent of a Shaun of the Dead for monster movies. As soon as they showed Kang-ho Song, who plays the oldest son, sleeping at the helm of their little shop I instantly knew two things: 1) he's gonna be the hero, definitely, and 2) I'm gonna absolutely love this movie. And I did! You should too!

So one sunday comes along and I got my handy free movie ticket that's finally redeemable due to its 'fun' restrictions and I don't know what movie to see, so I roll the dice and choose The Host because of its hype from Japan. From start to finish...
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So one sunday comes along and I got my handy free movie ticket that's finally redeemable due to its 'fun' restrictions and I don't know what movie to see, so I roll the dice and choose The Host because of its hype from Japan. From start to finish the movie is sub-titled, like The Passion or Apocalypto but just like them I was used to it in seconds. On to the movie! First off, when's the last time you saw a good monster movie? Maybe Godzilla in '98? Well finally we got another one that's actually pretty good (and funny). The movie is based around one family who owns a food stand near a river - a few years back something made it into the water that made a mutant evolve into a people-eating monster that can swim and run on land. So of course our focus family has their youngest abducted by the monster and it's up to the family to rescue her. Along the way you get some pretty good laughs and some great action. If you can handle the sub-titles go check it out for sure!

The first good creature-feature since the birth of CGI. Its a pretty good movie all around.

Some of the humor apparently doesn't really translate - or something, kinda funny - not really. Also, a whole lot of Anti-Americanism. The...
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The first good creature-feature since the birth of CGI. Its a pretty good movie all around.

Some of the humor apparently doesn't really translate - or something, kinda funny - not really. Also, a whole lot of Anti-Americanism. The film begins with an American Scientist instructing his subordinate to dump chemicals into the river. It ends with an American chemical called 'Agent Yellow' being used to try and kill the beast. Hmmm, they didn't really try to sugar-coat that one but can you blame them?

If it weren't for the (mostly) decent special effects, this movie would have rated 1 star. I understand that Asian filmmaking sensibilities are different, but bad acting and inert writing are the same in any language. The critics who jumped on the...
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If it weren't for the (mostly) decent special effects, this movie would have rated 1 star. I understand that Asian filmmaking sensibilities are different, but bad acting and inert writing are the same in any language. The critics who jumped on the love train for this movie must have been drinking tainted water from the Han River...