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Post by Jen on Jul 10, 2007 21:39:49 GMT -5
The Host(2006) Directed by Joon-ho Bong "It is Lurking Behind You"------------------ Rate this film on a scale of 0-5 Stars, 5 being the best.
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Canetoad
The Prodigal Toad
HMaM member of the Month, July 2006
Cry Havoc! And let slip the cats of war.
Posts: 2,868
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Post by Canetoad on Jul 10, 2007 22:15:37 GMT -5
THE HOST Rated: M (Korean with English subtitles) TWO STARS
MONSTERS from the deep feature prominently in my DVD shelves. Everything from 1950’s creature feature classics such as The Monster That Challenged the World, to The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and more recent efforts such as Deep Rising are worthy inhabitants of the collection. And as an avowed fan of Tojo Films and their Godzilla series, purists may hate me for saying this, but I even have some fondness for the 1998 US remake of Godzilla for its good cheesy fun. So it was with great expectations that the screener disc of the Korean monster flick The Host ( Gwoemul) went into the player. Things began well. An anonymous hospital employee is ordered to pour huge amounts of toxic chemicals into the drain… that or nuclear testing is always a bad omen. All good so far. We are then introduced to a single father and his old man – whom he works for in a crappy little food stall by the Han River in Seoul. Enter the 13 year old daughter whose biggest concern in life is that her cheap mobile phone that her no-hoper dad gave her doesn’t work very well. Character introductions complete, enter the monster, which is it must be said, a masterpiece of modern CGI. The sequence of its first attack along the banks of the river is superb with an impressively agile and convincing mutant marine beastie dispatching numerous innocent civilians in short order. Surprise surprise the 13 year old daughter is captured by the monster for later consumption and it is now up to her highly dysfunctional family to rescue her. This is where things get silly and tedious as we meander through a morass of far-fetched Korean bureaucracy, complicated inter-familial wrangling and general pissing about… all the while barely a soldier to be seen while a killer monster from the deep allegedly runs riot. In short, it’s silly and tedious, albeit with some good special effects. Seek out something like It Came from Beneath the Sea instead and revel in Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion animation efforts with a six armed octopus attacking San Fransisco half a century ago. It’s much more fun. Though no doubt it will be better than the inevitable Hollywood remake.
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Post by The Walking Dude on Jan 28, 2008 4:25:59 GMT -5
2 from me as well( a high 2, but not quite enough to be a 3)
Another overhyped/overated modern flick, though not without its merits. Some of the humour was pretty decent and the creature was excellent - maybe a bit 2 cgi for my tastes though- albeit some of the best cgi effects ive yet seen.
I guess i was expecting it two be a bit more creepier especially with Korea's recent track record. Whispering Coridors, Another Heaven, Drowning Ghost were all terrific and some my fave Asian horrors. Ultimately i must say i was more than a little disappointed with this outing.
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Post by GP on Jan 28, 2008 5:20:17 GMT -5
I thoroughly enjoyed it but then I really liked the weird korean disfunctional family dynamic. It was let down a little by some of the CGI, in particular the fire effects were truly awful, but on the whole I was engrossed and at times laughing so hard I thought I'd burst something.
4
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Post by Jen on Jan 28, 2008 10:22:08 GMT -5
I still need to see this one, completely forgot about it somehow. Think I am moving it up on my Netflix queue seems like one I would have fun with actually. Despite the bad CGI, which I do often dislike.
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Post by Jen on Jun 12, 2008 10:39:54 GMT -5
I thoroughly enjoyed it but then I really liked the weird korean disfunctional family dynamic. It was let down a little by some of the CGI, in particular the fire effects were truly awful, but on the whole I was engrossed and at times laughing so hard I thought I'd burst something. 4 I liked it, and this is why. I somehow was not expecting a comedy (though the humor was mentioned here), but it was actually quite funny and goofy as hell at times, which I found kind of charming. I wasn't crazy about some of the CGI either, though I did like the monster itself. I give it a three.
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Post by GL on Aug 1, 2012 10:26:24 GMT -5
Saw this one last night and I'll go 3 for this one as well. Very over-hyped affair, certainly with some good stuff but containing far too much flaws to really be anything more than a decent overall offering. The initial attack is outstanding, as it's a long, drawn-out action sequence that is impressive, realistic and quite shocking at times, moving through the location with great ease and containing many numerous fun scenes throughout to make it more enjoyable. The scenes of the kidnapped victim in the sewers trying to hide from the creature and her various escape attempts were really nice and suspenseful, including the final attempt up the flimsy rope she constructs over the sleeping creature. Even better, the CGI isn't a total mess and actually looks good, and the main beast looks nice overall, but there's still way too many problems here, from the over-blown plot that takes the film on twenty-minutes longer than necessary, a slew of utterly uninteresting family relationship troubles that are excruciating to sit through and a ton of problematic areas in the story that really shouldn't be there. It's decent and certainly watchable, but quite flawed and overrated at times.
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