Movies: The Host

A quaint little movie theater in Old Town area of Key West is the Tropic Cinema. Tucked into a little street off of Duval, the theater isn't likely to be found in any tourist guide (hell, it wasn't even listed in the Yellow Pages), but seeing a movie there was a fun way to spend an evening.

That movie was "The Host," a Korean flick directed by Bong Joon-ho. I've heard it described as "Godzilla" meets "Little Miss Sunshine," which is actually pretty spot-on. Combining the inter-generational dys-fun-ctional family with a horrific monster might not sound like it makes for a good movie, but the film finds a nice mix between drama, horror, and comedy (the scene where some of the family members mourn is side-splitting if you have a macabe sense of humor).

The movie has some problems. Like most of these films, the middle portion sags, and some of the characters are little more than exposition banks that exist for awhile before being killed. The special effects almost always look like a cheap TV show (to be fair, the budget was about 1/25th of "Spider-Man 3'), so there are seldom any "wow" moments. Finally, the overall plot isn't really compelling enough to sustain repeated viewings.

There's some strange anti-American-ness woven into the film, which is curious given how much the U.S. has put in to safeguard and support South Korea. Then again, it's hard to take a movie where a champion archer faces off against a formaldehyde-mutated monster too seriously.

Rating: 7/10