Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

TinsHeadline Touches You

Iseerphia All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

areatw If you ever need reminding that Korean cinema produces garbage too, then watch 'The Host'. As someone who has seen a lot of Korean films and generally thinks the standard of Korean cinema is high, this one was terrible. It's no better than a low-budget, crappy American horror with awful CGI and special effects, with the only difference being that 'The Host' has subtitles. If this had been an American production I have no doubt that people would be slating it for being cheap and trashy.The fact that many of the users who are raving about this film, awarding it 9 and 10 stars, have only ever written 1 review in their lifetime (which is for this film) tells you all you need to know - fake paid reviews. There is nothing even remotely good about 'The Host' that can justify such rave reviews. The plot is generic, the acting is terrible in parts, and the CGI/special effects are awful, even for 2006. Don't believe the hype and stay away from this film, this is Korean cinema at its very worst!

Prashast Singh Movie: The Host (12)Rating: 4.5/5I was quite curious to see this film for multiple reasons including the presence of Song Kang-ho. But after I watched it, I realized there's a lot more to love, appreciate and remember as well. Bong Joon-ho's efficient direction holds the film, and the visual effects impress, too. The film's worth watching on a Blu-ray for its decent cinematography, visuals and action scenes. THE HOST is decently executed, and its not being excessively gory makes it an interesting watch for kids as well. They are bound to love it. The director's approach towards the film's genre is interesting and he binds action, emotions and thrills very well in the film. The screenplay is excellent, as the film doesn't take too long in setting up the story and characters. The editing too is a major plus.Technically, it's one of the best South Korean films. From visual effects to action scenes: everything is executed and presented very well. As far as the performances are concerned, every actor does a great job, but of course it's Song Kang-ho who takes the lead with his top notch performance. THE HOST is undoubtedly an excellent and memorable action-horror flick which is a must watch for anyone who loves watching films.

Movie_Muse_Reviews 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

Brian Berta Many monster movies suffer from being over-the-top, repetitive, and cheesy nowadays. There are many more flaws to that genre, but here are the main ones I have with many of them. It's pretty hard for me to find good modern monster films. It is always refreshing to see a modern monster film which stands out amongst the rest of them as a result of doing a few things differently and better, making a highly effective piece of filmmaking. This is where "The Host" comes into place.After a fish gets mutated as a result of formaldehyde getting dumped into the "Han River", a slow-witted man named Park Gang-Du who operates a snack bar in a park does what he can to save his daughter, Hyun-seo, from its clutches after she is captured by it.One of the aspects to this film that works really well is the military aspect. This concept is most effective at the scene when Park Gang-du is captured by the military and is being tested on for a virus near the middle. If you look at the military's actions in the film from their side, their actions seem fair and understandable giving the circumstances. However, when you look at the film at the viewpoint of what Park Gang-du and his family have to go through, they look very threatening and evil. This works very good in the film because you can't decide whether to like or hate them. While most sci-fi monster movies view the military as a bunch of people who shoot at the main monster in the film with horrible aiming, this film makes you view them in a different and pretty original way.Another aspect which sets it apart from most other monster movies is that the film is never over-the-top with the scenes featuring the monster. While many monster movies kill off people in over-the-top and overly-exaggerated ways which sound like an immature child would come up with them, the monster in this film behaves how you'd expect a mutated fish to act if this was real life. It only kills for food, the kills never look exaggerated, and the film always keeps it so the monster behaves realistically. Also, this film continues to succeed in this aspect at the ending. One of the biggest clichés of any monster movie is to defeat the monster by blowing it up. I'm not going to spoil how they eventually kill the monster, but it doesn't give me an underwhelmed feeling.Also, some monster films have their monsters sound cheesy. Some of the cheesy monsters from films include "2-Headed Shark Attack", "Sharktopus", "Sand Sharks", and "Sharknado". Many monster films try to combine different animals with other animals or they try to give them unrealistic and stupid features. While the fish in this movie is giant and mutated, it never sounds as if a child would come up with it. It's pretty safe to say that this is much better than most other monster films produced in the last few decades.Another great thing about this film is that it has the guts to kill off main characters that you wouldn't expect to die. Although director Bong Joon-ho handles this concept much, much better in "Snowpiercer" (2013), this film shows it well too. While Snowpiercer handles this concept perfectly in my opinion, this one introduces it to us before Bong Joon-ho is able to perfect it later. In this film, the deaths are as unexpected as they are brief, and before we are able to fully realize what's about to happen, the characters bite the dust.My only major flaw with this movie lies with its final few minutes. Not the final fight scene before that one as that was greatly done, but the very final scene. Going back to Snowpiercer for a second, both of those films evoke somewhat similar moods with their ending. While Snowpiercer's ending may have worked since it handled ambiguity the right way, I don't think that this one works. My issue with it is that it doesn't show us enough of a conclusion for how all of the surviving characters turned out, what happened to them, and where they are living. It shows us a few minutes with a couple of them, and then it fades to black. I wished that the film was about 5-10 minutes longer. That would've been long enough to fill in the few remaining gaps. Since they were wanted by the military, I didn't know if the other people helping Park Gang-du got captured, if they were able to escape, or if something else happened to them. Also, I didn't know whether the military let them go or if they're still on the run. You could argue with this by saying that it's up to interpretation as to what happened to them, but the film didn't provide anything whatsoever for me to think of a logical explanation. However, this is a minor flaw, and I loved most other parts to this movie.In conclusion, I'm really glad that I checked this one out. I still prefer Snowpiercer greatly over this one, but this film contributes its own originality and shining factors to the table. The military aspect, the removal of the common and annoying over-the-top feeling in many monster films, and how it's fearless in killing off main characters makes it stand out amongst most monster films. Long story short, it is a gigantic breath of fresh air for modern monster films. I was not disappointed at all when I watched it, and it delivered on the praise it has received from critics and the audience. If you're one of the countless number of people who are sick to death with most repetitive and bland monster/horror films which are spit out way too often, try your absolute hardest to go out of your way to check this one out. Whatever you do, please do not dismiss it.