The Host (2006)

 Seriously disappointing
Since this is a Godzilla ripoff complete with the scientific explanation for why there's a giant fish running around and eating people, I thought it'd be an entertaining romp. Instead it was an uneven movie with some good scenes interspersed through a lot of hamfisted "parodies" and irritating "funny" sequences.

The movie starts out well by grounding the monster dynamic in a family drama where three generations run a food stand not very well and the middle member acts more like a kid than his daughter. Then the mutant fish comes along and that's a great scene but then the daughter gets dragged away.

The next scene afterwards with a family crying over her picture should be heartbreaking but it's just irritating. The recriminations are script based instead of character based and the ways in which the father of the girl keeps grabbing for himself are supposed to be - I don't know - funny? Tragic? Please.

Anyhow that's the beginning of the end for the movie as it meanders through a rescue mission and a disease infection subplot which casts the American army as the main villain in the quarantine. When the daughter shows up alive in the sewer system, the movie offers no explanation as to why the fish isn't eating her but keeps throwing dead bodies her way. Cute kids tend to have a longer life expectancy in monster movies, but there's a point where that just gets ridiculous.

So overall, there's a good 25 minutes at the beginning, but nothing is ever scary and the humor is stupid. May 16, 2008

 Horrid Dubbing
Somewhere between comedy and horror, the Host is an interesting movie with many different layers to it. There is certainly a fair amount of social commentary in the movie. It is scary at times, though the authorities in the movie are far more scary than the monster. Somehow, it just did not seem to fully work as either comedy or horror for me, and I think language may have been the biggest issue.

I made the mistake of watching the English dubbed version instead of opting for Korean and subtitles. The dubbing was atrocious. One wonders at what third rate drama club the producers found these voice "actors." In many cases, the drama, emotion, horror or comedy of a scene was totally destroyed by bad voice work. I do recommend the film. It's more interesting than 99% of horror films produced in the United States today, even if it is a bit long and confusing at times. I also highly recommend avoiding the dubbing if at all possible.

May 10, 2008

 Disappointing
What I expected was a thrilling monster-movie (something we're seriously lacking these days) but what I got (aside from the first half-hour) is an ultimate BOREFEST. The ending was a severe disappointment and it just seemed to get sillier as it went along. The FX was fairly impressive but I recommend a film like Cloverfield for a seriously exciting/good monster movie. April 25, 2008

 The host is the least
ARE YOU KIDDING ME THIS HAS TO BE THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE, I BOUGHT IT BECAUSE OF THE GREAT REVIEWS, WHAT WERE YOU, PEOPLE WATCHING April 19, 2008

 Terrible
I cannot believe that reviewers have actually given this piece of junk more than one star. It was horrible. The "MONSTER" looked like a plastic toy. The "PLOT" was pretty simple and plodding (as well as predictable). I guess I could take one of my rubber toys, magnify it a couple of times and make a movie myself to much acclaim.

By the way, why was this piece of junk called "The Host"? Why wasn't it just called "The Fish" or something that made sense. What really got me was that a review on the cover of the DVD compared it favorably to Jaws. What a lie!! Thank goodness that I borrowed it for free from my local library - if I had paid a penny, it would have been war. April 7, 2008

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