John Cox on The Host

There's an interview with The Host's special effects director John Cox over at Fangoria (found via SciFiJapan). Here's an interesting part:

“We just saw partial storyboards,” he reveals, “so, not knowing any of the dialogue or anything, we really had no idea what it was we were working on, just that they needed this fish monster and it was part of this particular film. The director [Bong Joon-ho] having a fairly good reputation, we were expecting it to be at least halfway decent. The same thing goes, though, with a lot of films. Sometimes we read scripts and think, ‘Yeah, it’s a really good script,’ but by the end, it’s just…not. It becomes very mediocre, and it’s really hard to put your finger on where things didn’t gel. Because going into these shows, most of the time, all the key ingredients are there. I guess it depends on the meddling, whether or not the director’s vision is allowed to get to the screen unimpeded or whether everyone wants to put their two cents’ worth in it.

“In THE HOST’s case, there was Japanese money in it as well,” he notes, “so there was the opportunity for there to be interference from producers from other countries, but it doesn’t seem to have happened. From what I understand, the film is exactly the one that the director hoped to make.”

Also interesting, Cox is working on the next film by Greg McLean, director of "Wolf Creek." Apparently the film, Rogue, is about a giant crocodile. (It may be going straight to video.) Will it rival films like Lake Placid, Dinocroc and Alligator? We'll just have to wait and find out.

The Host takes America by storm

Anthony Lane reviews The Host for the New Yorker. This is pretty exciting, a giant monster movie getting not only a review in the New Yorker, but a positive review. Lane makes comparisons to Little Miss Sunshine, Jacques Tati, Krzysztof Kieslowski and, more expectedly, John Carpenter. And you know what, the movie deserves all those comparisons while not being quite any of them. This should be a huge revival for giant monster movies, though it will take some expert screenwriters and directors to create anything this good again.

If you don't believe me or Lane, you can find some other reviews at these fine places:

Positive reviews: Evanston Review, The Examiner (San Francisco), Cinematical, Creative Loafing Atlanta, The Stranger, New York Magazine, Coming Soon, Cinematic Happenings Under Development (CHUD also has some thoughts on a proposed American remake.)

Mixed reviews: Real Movie News, Daily Record,

Negative Reviews: Big Picture, Big Sound, Gwinnett Daily Post

There's also a review by Rick Kleffel at NPR, but I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet.

The Host, a short review

I managed to catch the new South Korean film, "The Host", while I was on a plane to London last month. It was the best thing about that flight.

The movie is about a Korean man -- who is at best stupid and at worst deranged -- losing his daughter to a giant monster. He and his family make a valiant effort against the government and circumstance to rescue the girl and defeat the monster.

While that pretty accurately describes the story, it doesn't tell you anything about the movie. The characters are all well drawn and the tone shifts comfortably between goofiness, drama, action and black humor.

The film is easily the best giant monster movie I've seen since the Gamera trilogy. The monster, however, is not of the kaiju type. He's slightly smaller than the Rhedosaurus of "Beast from 20,000 Fathoms." And he's a scary beast. You never get a truly good look at the creature, although he seems to be some kind of mutation between a tadpole and a lizard with a wide mouth that opens in at least three directions.

I don't think I've captured the true sense of how good this film is. But watch out for it, it is expected to have a small tour of American theaters before its DVD release and an American remake. No giant monster fan could be disappointed with this film.