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The Host

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The Host (2007)

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Reviews Counted:141

Fresh:130

Rotten:11

Average Rating:7.7/10

Consensus: As populace pleasing as it is intellectually satisfying, The Host combines scares, laughs, and satire into a riveting, monster movie.

Rated: R

Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Mar 9, 2007 Limited

Box Office: $2,010,000

Synopsis: The talk of the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival, THE HOST, the latest film from critically acclaimed visionary director BONG Joon-ho, has already garnered a substantial amount of... The talk of the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival, THE HOST, the latest film from critically acclaimed visionary director BONG Joon-ho, has already garnered a substantial amount of international buzz. Utilizing state-of-the-art special effects courtesy of a creative partnership between Weta Workshop (King Kong, The Lord of the Rings) and The Orphanage (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sin City), THE HOST is equal parts creature-feature thrill ride and poignant human drama. Gang-du (SONG Kang-ho) works at a food-stand on the banks of the Han River. Dozing on the job, he is awakened by his daughter, Hyun-seo ( KO A-sung), who is angry with him for missing a teacher-parent meeting at school. As Gang-du walks out to the riverbank with a delivery, he notices that a large crowd of people has gathered, taking pictures and talking about something hanging from the Han River Bridge. The otherwise idyllic landscape turns suddenly to bedlam when a terrifying creature climbs up onto the riverbank and begins to crush and eat people. Gang-du and his daughter run for their lives but suddenly the thing grabs Hyun-seo and disappears back into the river. The government announces that the thing apparently is the Host of an unidentified virus. Having feared the worst, Gang-du receives a phone call from his daughter who is frightened, but very much alive. Gang-du makes plans to infiltrate the forbidden zone near the Han River to rescue his daughter from the clutches of the horrifying Host... --© Magnolia Pictures [More]

Starring: Kang-ho Song, Byun Hee-bong, Bae Hae-il, Bae Doo-na

Starring: Kang-ho Song, Byun Hee-bong, Bae Hae-il, Bae Doo-na, Ko A-sung

Director: Oh Bong-Joon

Director: Oh Bong-Joon
Screenwriter: Hah Joon-won, Baek Chul-hyun
Producer: Choi Yong-bae
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

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Release:

Jul 24, 2007

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Reviews for The Host

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61 - 80 (sorted by date)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
03/10/07
Sydney Morning Herald

[A] scary-funny romp.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
03/10/07
Mark Holcomb
Mark Holcomb
Time Out New York

Bong still offers a powerful rejoinder to his Hollywood counterparts: Anything you can do, I can do better.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
03/10/07
Scott Tobias
Scott Tobias
AV Club

A great monster, strong performances and unexpected humor.

Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
03/10/07
Jean Lowerison
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan

You’ll laugh, you’ll gasp, you’ll jump, you’ll ask Hollywood for your money back. Seek it out.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
03/10/07
Simon Crook
Simon Crook
Empire Magazine

Retains a quirky charm that cannot be discounted. Recommended not just for what it achieves, but for what it attempts to.

Full Review Source: DustinPutman.com | comment Comment
03/10/07
Dustin Putman
Dustin Putman
DustinPutman.com

Bong's supreme achievement is that he has made his many messages fun.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
03/09/07
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

If this madly entertaining movie has a fault, it's that it's too ingenious for the genre it ostensibly inhabits.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
03/09/07
Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

What a pleasure to watch an ambitious horror film that not only frightens but also surprises and engages us completely with its artful shifting of tones.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
03/09/07
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today

Boon's film is both funny and heartbreaking, a supremely confident mix of political satire, free-floating paranoia, fractured family dynamics and the kind of comedy that regularly reconfigures itself into tragedy.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
03/09/07
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A great piece of filmmaking and a legitimate science-fiction/horror classic.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
03/09/07
Peter Hartlaub
Peter Hartlaub
San Francisco Chronicle

The problem with the film is that the sum isn't greater than the parts and the pieces don't fuse in a way that's consistently pleasing or cinematically satisfying.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment 12 Comments
03/09/07
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Bong Joon-ho's The Host is the best kind of genre film, a movie that delivers the conventions audiences expect from a horror flick while also offering surprising new variations on the formula.

Full Review Source: Reel.com | comment Comment
03/09/07
Jim Hemphill
Jim Hemphill
Reel.com

The Host is wildly entertaining; people who love the genre will get their geek buttons pushed hard by this flick. But what makes the movie an instant classic is that it's also, in its dark heart, a furious lampoon.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
03/09/07
M.E. Russell
M.E. Russell
Oregonian

The first good horror movie of the year.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
03/09/07
Stephen Whitty
Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The Host is a loopy, feverishly imaginative genre hybrid about the demons that haunt us from without and within.

comment 1 Comment
03/09/07
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
New York Times

The Host is a horror movie with a difference. South Korea's biggest box-office hit ever, the thriller -- by director-writer Bong Joon-ho -- is a fantastical genre-buster.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
03/09/07
V.A. Musetto
V.A. Musetto
New York Post

Bong Joon-ho's cheerfully outrageous monster movie is set to attain instant cult status.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
03/09/07
Elizabeth Weitzman
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News

Packed with politics, family conflict and satiric references to some of the more absurd aspects of Korean cinema, The Host never forgets to be a scary, icky, over-the-top fright fest, either.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
03/09/07
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

Monster movies tend to be as misunderstood as their creatures, but dating back to 1931's Frankenstein, some haven't been about scaring us so much as enlightening us. The Host does this while disgorging a lizardlike carnivore.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
03/09/07
Bruce Westbrook
Bruce Westbrook
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
61 - 80 (sorted by date)
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Latest News for The Host

September 02, 2009: First Look: The Host 2 Opens in new window
Eager for an early glimpse of one of the monsters you'll see in "The Host 2"? Twitch has what you're looking for. More...

March 18, 2009: Bong Joon-ho Discusses Upcoming Projects Opens in new window
Director Bong Joon-ho isn't involved with the upcoming sequel to his hit monster movie "The Host," but he does have a number of other projects in the pipeline -- including "an... More...

November 19, 2008: The Host Is Coming to America Opens in new window
According to Bong Joon-ho, director of "The Host," Universal has purchased the American rights to his film, and the studio is planning a remake for U.S. audiences. More...

June 26, 2008: The Host 2 Filming in Early '09 Opens in new window
Director Ning Hao will helm and script a Chinese sequel to the Korean box-office smash The Host, scheduled to film early next year. More...

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