DVD Watch: The Host

For the unfamiliar, although I imagine that would be few of you considering the buzz the movie got, The Host is a South Korean horror flick - a creature caper as it were.

What's most interesting about the movie is its ability to revitalize a genre which quite honestly hasn't gotten much farther than having some guy run around in a latex suit. Yet with The Host you can see a touch of what made movies like the original Godzilla so great. There's aspects of tragedy and disaster thrown in and by the time you get through the impressively early debut of the film's namesake (most monster films wait until at least midway through to build tension) - you'll see what the buzz was all about. The Host is scary fun.

Its also more than a little uneven. It can't always pick up from the same tone it had just a scene earlier. There's melodrama for comedic effect, surrealism for ... well confusion I think, and even the occasional slapstick. The movie feels a little soft in the middle.

Fortunately, it is sharp on the edges. The early scenes and the last quarter of the movie are gripping and entertaining. The movie stumble sometimes, but strides more often than not. Highly recommend.