Watch The Host For Free

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Why does everyone like this movie so much? I thought it was going to be funny. It wasn't. I thought it was going to be scary. It wasn't. There were some impressive special effects, but, for the most part, I found it to be boring and annoying.

There are quite a number of plot flaws and credibility issues, but that aside this was a thoroughly entertaining horror fare. In fact, this was more realistic and likable than most other monster movies. Go Ah-sung was brilliant as the little girl. The effects were great and the film had a fair share of really scary and suspenseful moments. This was bloody awesome and not predictable and melodramatic as most American films of this genre. This is a classic!Maybe this should also be a wake-up call to humanity for all the stuff we dump in rivers and the ocean!

First off, I have no idea how so many people can say they don't understand the humour in this film - it's simple, slapstick stuff. A lot of it was obviously to hammer home how dysfunctional the Park family are (such as the funeral scene), and it works well. The people who don't understand it seem to be overthinking it.The film has good and bad points, like most. Some of the good points: The monster looks good, it moves in a really cool way and isn't something that's been done before. It looks like a huge, mutated mudskipper or newt. The family at the centre of the film are quite likeable even with all their faults. That seems to be a problem with a lot of horror films nowadays, the characters tend to be so shallow and stereotypical that you have a hard time caring about them. A lot of unexpected things happen in this film. The ending particularly. It was upsetting, but at the same time it was a refreshing change from the usual formula. CGI, sound, lighting and the camera shots all seemed excellent to me, there was one slightly dodgy moment when the monster falls over at the end but other than that it was great. The jokes/slapstick moments were funny. There wasn't some huge culture barrier, it probably just wasn't to everyone's taste. It's the sort of film that will have a character do something, and you'll find yourself laughing and facepalming at the same time. It's pretty accessible for western audiences. I've seen a few Korean films that were sometimes hard to understand, but this one is easy. Everything is understandable to a western audience and the subtitles are very well done.Bad points: At no point is the film actually scary. It tries to be, but because of the comedy it doesn't quite ever feel frightening. It's more of a drama with a monster in it than a horror movie. It mixes comedy and tragedy, which you don't see often. There's the odd plot hole or two - what the heck was with the fake virus (why?) and where were all the quarantine/police guys after the first half hour? They did have a bit of a dig at the Americans. I thought it was pretty funny, not being one, but I imagine some of them would have been upset by it. Shin Godzilla did the same thing, maybe the Americans are replacing us Brits as the 2D movie bad guys now?All in all, it's well worth watching. I've spent most of this week watching monster movies and this was definitely one of the better ones. It's pretty hard to get it right in this genre, but, although it has a few issues, this film is one of the better ones.

After "Jaws," monster/large predator movies grew into a cheesy pop culture phenomenon, particularly by the late '90s. "The Host," Korean filmmaker Joon-ho Bong's 2006 riff on the genre that once launched the blockbuster, is a rare return to form for creature features, and maybe the closest any movie has come to evoking Steven Spielberg's style in the 21st century.Most monster movies made in the last 20 years feature a fearsome juggernaut of a beast that carefully picks off each member of the cast one by one throughout the film. "The Host" disposes of that formula, opting for family-driven narrative, though many R-rated monster movie hallmarks remain. In response to the B-movie tendencies of most monster flicks, modern filmmakers have gone with a more reserved approach, like in Ridley Scott's "Alien," keeping the creature hidden or obscured for most of the film, usually until the climax. Bong steamrolls us with the mutant fish-lizard-beast the first chance he gets. The high- intensity attack sequence is easily a highlight of the film, juggling fun and entertaining notes with terrifying moments that put us in the shoes of the people running for their lives.In the aftermath of that attack, young Park Hyun-seo (Ah-sung ko) is essentially kidnapped by the monster, though her lazy father, Park Gang-Doo (Kang-ho Song), aunt (Doona Bae), uncle and grandfather all believe her dead. When they find out she's alive, they plan to break free from a government quarantine site (contact with the monster is believed to result in the contraction of a deadly virus) and save her.To do so, Gang-Doo and his family must push back on a clearly misguided emergency responses system that's been put in place. There's a lot of background context to the film's events with the disease element and the world governments' handling of the situation, none of which have a direct bearing on the plot, but do lightly color the way we view and think about the film. The opening prologue also chillingly implies that the monster is a result of irresponsible human attitudes toward the environment. You could argue Bong and co-writers Won-jun Ha and Chul-hyun Baek are suggesting we have only ourselves to blame for the Park family's suffering.In the end, however, it becomes clear that Bong's priority in "The Host" is entertainment with a payoff. He wants to deliver the thrills of a monster movie, just in his own way. He has a brilliant way of twisting sequences in ways that defy expectation. You think you know exactly what's coming, and it does indeed come, but not in the way – or at the time – you expect it to. Both Bong's direction and the script do an excellent job of recognizing Hollywood conventions and altering them in such a way that feels novel and exciting, but still ultimately deliver the satisfying payoffs that genre fans prefer. Bong isn't Spielberg, but he's someone who is bringing his own take to a concept born and popularized in the West, that has gone through iterations good and bad. He's sorted through those iterations and pulled out what interests him as an auteur, and he is able to punctuate the film's most memorable moments with his distinctive style and vision. In today's special effects era, "The Host" might seem like nothing special on the surface, but the family-centric bones of the narrative make it a compelling watch that both speaks to a very familiar sub-genre and imbues it with unique vision.~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more