JumpCutz

Looks like a decent B monster movie...

http://www.hostmovie.com/

bjh_18

This was an absolute smash in Korea last summer. TV commercials galore and posters all over the entire country. Not a day went by over the course of a couple months where my kids at school didn't talk about it. I found it to be overhyped, but entertaining nonetheless.

clemente

I saw this at the Chicago Film Festival and liked it quite a lot. I liken it to Little Miss Sunshine meets Jaws - I think the trailer touches upon something that I certainly didn't expect when I went into the theater, there's a fair amount of dysfunctional family comedy - but also has the monster thing going.

I almost picked up an import, but I'll wait for the R1 DVD, and I'll see it again in theaters when it comes out.

JordanGLC

Yes, I'm aware that there is another highly anticipated film opening March 9. If you're not into that, or are up to seeing another flick that weekend, do yourself a favor and seek out Bong Joon-Ho's The Host (Gwoemul). The fine folks at SciFiJapan have trailers and a list of the cities The Host will be playing in. Click here. While you're there, you can check out several other articles/features on The Host. Keith Aiken of SciFiJapan has seen The Host and gave it a very positive review.

Thinking someone who writes for SciFiJapan may be a bit biased towards a giant monster flick? The Host rates a robust 92% on the tomatometer, with an average rating of 7.4 out of 10. Critics too snooty for you? The Host has an average score of 7.2 on the imdb. Don't trust anyone's opinion? Go see it for yourself!

zombeaner

I highly recommend this film. I've already seen it at a pre-screening and I have the Korean DVD and it is a lot of fun. I don't think I've had that much fun in a theater with a responsive crowd in a long time!

The Bus

IMDB seems to disagree on the limited release:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0468492/cine...ate=2007-03-10

zombeaner

IMDB is way wrong, there are two theaters in metro Dallas opening The Host on Friday.

mather

The Host is a very good movie to come from Korea in a while, for me anyways. Many of the Korean films are rom coms and horror and those are a dime a dozen, The Host shines. I recommend it for those willing to read subs to catch it.

JordanGLC

Just click on the SciFiJapan link I listed above, or go to hostmovie.com.

Zodiac_Speaking

No Omaha, NE?? Hopefully, AMC Select will pick this up for my market...

Fincher Fan

It was okay. Don't go in too hyped about the reviews, though, and you will have a better experience. The effects are great but the monster doesn't feature all that much as it is more of a character study.

minguy

the first 20-30 minutes are superb. simply amazing. freaking fantastic. whichever superlatives fit your fancy.

the rest is not quite as exciting, but overall very entertaining and well made.

jdpatri

I hate where I live.

But I should probably just be glad I'm getting it eventually.

FuQ

I own the HK DVD and it is a very good movie. I think this is another case of a movie being so overhyped there is no way it can match it. It is a good movie but the first 30 minutes are incredible. No movie could sustain that level for a two hour period. It is a tad too long too.

squidget

We never get anything good. I imported the DVD instead and plan to watch it this weekend. Woohoo!

marty888

I saw this last October when it was screened as part of the New York Film Festival - and I definitely want to see it one more time on a big screen before settling in with a DVD.

squidget

I just watched it and I agree. The first half was, wow. The middle lagged a bit before picking up again in the last act.
Overall, the movie was very good. And I recommend anyone that can catch it on the big screen to do so. The dvd sufficed but this would rock in the theatre.

Brent L

I watched this on DVD tonight, so I'll give my quick thoughts on it. First off, do not be tricked by the high score on RottenTomatoes. Yes, it's sitting at 94% right now as I write this, but it is not that great of a film. The movie is very, very political, and I fear that many critics are enjoying the message of that aspect of the flick a bit too much, and it's skewing their opinion of the actual picture as a whole. I also feel that the director was trying harder to make a political statement than he was trying to make a truly great film.

What I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't go into this one expecting a movie of the quality that one would usually expect from a score that high. Also, don't go in expecting an actual horror movie. If anything, I'd consider it more of a sci-fi action flick.

It might seem like I didn't enjoy The Host, but I did. It had some interesting moments, and the first and third acts were borderline awesome. The second act seemed to drag quite a bit though, and you don't even see too terribly much of the beast. There are comedic bits all throughout the movie however, so that helps to keep things fun. I'd almost say that there is too much comedy however. I got the feeling that even the movie didn't know what to do - if it should be funny or frightening. In a few of the suspenseful scenes, I didn't really feel the full effect, because I wasn't sure if I should be freaked out or if I should be on the verge of laughing.

In the end, I did enjoy the movie, but it was very much a mixed bag to me. While not in the RT range of 94%, I feel that it's more in the IMDB range of 7.2 or so. I have a feeling that there are going to be quite a bit of people expecting one thing from this movie, and getting something totally different. I do recommend it, but please, just know for sure what it is that you're getting into. If you do that, I think most fans of the genre will enjoy it, even if they don't agree that it's the second coming of horror.

Jay G.

Rottentomatoes actually has two different scores from reviewers. The one you mention is the Tomatometer, which is a percentage based on how many of the reviewers would recommend seeing the film vs. those who would recommend against it. It's a binary representation and thus doesn't give an indication of how much the reviewers liked it, just whether they did or not. With this rating, a high score doesn't indicate that the film is a masterpiece, just that the majority of people liked it.

This sentiment is pretty much all one should take from the Tomatometer.

The second score is called "Average Rating" and is less noticeable on the page. This score does measure how much the reviewers liked the film, based on a scale of 1-10, and as such is much closer to the method IMDB uses to get its rating. The Average Rating by critics for The Host is 7.9/10, not too far off from IMDB's 7.2
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/pages/faq#avgrating
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/host/

Rottentomatoes also has a Tomatometer and Average Rating based on user responses. For The Host, these scores are slightly lower than their critic counterparts, with a Tomatometer score of 86% and an Average Rating of 7.6/10.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/host/reviews_users.php

Looking at all four ratings is the best way to get a well-rounded view of the response to the film. However, if you're just looking to see if the film is probably worth seeing, and you're fine with trusting the professional reviewers' opinions, then checking just the prominent critic Tomatometer score should be fine.

splattii2

IMO The Host is the begining of the end for Korea. It's the sign that Korea is now trying to make shallow North American popcorn films to be "remade" or "picked up" instead of making original and creative films like they used to pre 2003.

RichC2

I disagree with that, The Host was very much a Korean film, mixing genres and tones with focus on the characters rather than the monster, and at least an attempt at political concern (even if they do bash you over the head with it in spots). If they were going after remakeability they would make something along the lines of D-War... oh wait.

mmconhea

It's not coming to my town, should I go for the Korean DVD? Is it the same thing?

Peep

I saw it this past weekend in Los Angeles and really liked it. I agree with previous comments about the pacing, however.

BuddhaWake

so I take it you didn't watch typhoon? that was just bad hollywood stuff.

CharlieK

Saw this last night and really enjoyed it. The camera movements during the monster v. public scenes were very effective. Unlike anything I think I've seen in America.

I'm not too familiar with Korean cinema, but someone metioned earlier how the focus ofthe movie wasn't really on the monster. I thought that was a refreshing choice for this kind of movie and made me enjoy it even more.