In The Host, the monster is this huge sea creature who can run quicker than an Olympic sprinter and can jump and flip in the air like a gymnast. Basically, if your in this monster’s path and he is coming after you… good luck.

The opening scene of the movie is terrific and is a great way to introduce us to this beast. I bet you all remember that great beach scene from the movie Jaws? You know the one, where the beach is full of sun-bathers and family’s on vacation with Roy Scheider searching for the big shark with his binoculars, waiting for the scream from the next victim… totally pissed with the idea that all these innocent people are being lined up as fodder because the mayor won’t shut down the beach?

Well the opening scene is a bit like that, but instead of the shark being confined to water, it shoots out from the sea and goes on a monster rampage, eating, dismembering and trampling all over the screaming and innocent people. It’s a wonderfully fun scene, which ends with our protagonist’s daughter kidnapped by the monster… with the rest of the movie being about her family’s desperate struggle to rescue her.

Or at least for the most part. The movie has quite a bit of excess baggage in the second act, and for me, anything that didn’t involve the family’s attempted rescue of the little girl was unesscesary and just slowed down the action. That includes the obvious political overtones, which in my opinion work so much better when they are added with subtly.  

The Host is a far more emotional movie than I expected. There is one moment in the film where a family completes breaks down and disintegrates before your eyes. The loss of a family member hasn’t been transmitted as well as this on screen for a long time.

Comparisons to Little Miss Sunshine have to be made. This is an eccentric family, but one that you feel is a loving one and their moments of wackiness only add to their charm.

I’d recommended it and it’s tremendous fun, but don’t expect this “flavour of the month” Korean movie to effect you the way some movies from the that country have in previous years. Still, the one’s we get to see are always enjoyable and I’m looking forward to seeing which next movie from that country the Western world takes a fancy for.

Next up… BLACK BOOK (watched it today, I thought it was great).