Product Description: Magnolia Home Ent. The Host - Collector's Edition - DVD The film revolves around Park Hee-bong (played by Byun Hee-bong), a man in his late 60s. Park runs a small snack bar on the banks of the Seoul's Han River and lives with his two sons, one daughter and one granddaughter. The Parks seem to lead a quite ordinary and peaceful life, or maybe a tad bit poorer than the average Seoulite. Hee-bong's elder son Gang-du(by Song Gang-ho) is an immature and incompetent man in his 40s, whose wife left home long ago. Nam-il (by Park Hae-il) is the youngest son, an unemployed grumbler, and daughter Nam-joo (by Bae Du-na) is an archery medalist and member of the national team. One day, an unidentified mutant suddenly appears from the depths of the Han River and spreads panic and death, and Gang-du's daughter Hyun-seois carried off by the monster and disappears. Allthe family members are in a great agony as they have lost someone dearest to them. But as they findout she is still alive, they resolve to save her.
Amazon.com: Aficionados of movie monsters will find things in The Host that they have been waiting to see all their lives: a monster lazily unfurling itself from the girders beneath a bridge, for instance, or a view from a moving elevated train that frames the monster as it gallops lustily across a park filled with scattering locals. If the realization of a creature were all this movie had going for it, director Bong Joon-ho would have enough to be proud of, but The Host offers more food for thought, and plenty of food for the monster. Bong creates both a deeply eccentric comedy about family and a cheeky gloss on political currents. The monster is created when a U.S. military doctor (Scott Wilson in an unnerving cameo) orders a South Korean soldier to discard chemicals into the Han River in Seoul. Sure enough, a toxic monster is born, as we see in an opening reel that is surely the most exhilarating monster intro in years. Our central figure--of the human variety, that is--is played by Song Kang-ho (who also starred in Bong's Memories of Murder), as a hilariously lazy slob who must fight to discover what happened to his daughter after she was snatched up by the creature. Along the way, the film makes some pointed cracks at the ease with which governments can exploit public fear for their own purposes, and there's some satire aimed at U.S. intervention in global affairs. The film has some serious lulls, and would have been a tighter, crazier head-rush if it were 90 minutes long instead of two hours. But in general this is a much smarter Godzilla movie than Godzilla movies ever were. --Robert Horton
Misses the mark. True it has intelligence (the monster). But as monster films go. Give me the lovable roaring Godzilla or Gamera.
This is simply my opinion but it was like "Reno 911" chasing a monster. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry most of the time. At the start I thought is was going to be a comedy given the clumsiness of the monster as it chased the people around. Second, where was the military? All I saw were people driving disinfectant trucks. And at no time does anyone attempt to figure out the creatures origin. This is a laughable movie. Thankfully I merely rented it. Do yourself a favor and rewatch a Godzilla, Gamera or other like monster films.
Very cool monster movie! Save all the pompus, big vocabulary, I'm a critic reviews. If you like monster movies with awesome spfx then see The Host! If not then go watch the 56th remake of Pride and Predjudice. HD makes it look even better! We need more giant monster movies!!!
Horrible, but intresting monster When i bought this movie some guy had asked me if i was buying it for entertainment or just because. I told him i was hoping for a good monster movie; and boy was i wrong. I still haven't even watched the entire thing! It was so bad i actually turned it off before it was over(and i hardly ever do that.) The dubbing was worse than some of the old godzilla movies, the acting was phenomanally bad, the story was run of the mill, and the list goes on some more. The only thing i found somewhat good was the creature. The cgi wasn't the greatest, but it was alright. The way it traveled was actually quite creative, but it was still somewhat unimaginative. I can't believe they would say it's on a par with jaws; its not even close. This movie will most certainly NOT be a classic. To sum it up, if your looking for a bad horror film with a different kind of monster, this will probaly satisfy. I will also add that the prequel and i will be far away from eachother at all times when it comes out.
Nicely done but lightyears away from great. Overhyped too. I have no idea why this film is being compared to ALIEN or JAWS. It is offensively inferior.
Basically, there is a Korean family. Then there is this monster who captures the little girl. Family goes after the monster. Monster keeps the girl in its sewer hideout full of other victim's bones. Family finds the monster. Monster is attracted to the city where there's a trap. Monster gets killed.
The effects are nicely done and the crowd scenes where the monster runs at large and eats people are very well staged (and must have been expensive to shoot). That explains why there are only two of those big scenes in the entire film.
The rest of the film is just the family looking for the monster and little girl hiding from the monster.
The film lacks more spectacle (although the little it has is very well done).
And the acting is very strange. It is very histrionic... like if everybody were in a Masked Rider or Ultraman episode. In a way, it looked like those old Japanese TV shows... but made with CGI.
I got very disappointed after all the hype. I am sure it worked a lot better with Asian audiences who are more in tune with many elements... like the histrionic acting, some characters, the fact that one of the protagonists is an Olympic bow and arrow winner (a big sport in Korea)... and many other things.
Rent. Don't buy.
LIke Jaws or Alien? Give me a break ... I was eager to see this after reading several reviews that raved how it was similar to Jaws and Alien. What a major disappointment. How anyone could even begin to compare this 2+ hour snooze fest to those movies is just amazing to me. Yes I get that the director was trying to be satirical and campy. It did not work for me. It was not scary. There was almost no suspense. And ... I did not think it was funny either.
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