“Is all of your family so dumb all the time?"

Bong Joon-ho’s third film, “The Host," ended up becoming the highest grossing South Korean film of all time straight out of the gate with it playing on a record number of screens in its home country — it made the South Korean record books with its box office performance during its opening weekend alone. Quentin Tarantino loves it. Harry Knowles loves it. But how do we feel about it? Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we start our Bong Joon-ho series with 2006’s “The Host.” We talk about how we feel about the movie — Andy doesn’t like it very much despite seeing the qualities that make it stand out for people whereas Pete finds it a fun watch and enjoys said qualities. We chat about the actors, notably Song Kang-ho, Byun Hee-bong, Park Hae-il and Bae Doo-na, touching on how well they work for us as members of this dysfunctional family of idiots. We talk about the monster and debate what works for us and what doesn’t. We discuss the Americans in the film as well as the English sequences, contemplating how well they work (if at all) in context with what Bong is trying to say. We cover the various messages Bong is hitting on with this film as well as touch on the various subplots that arise and how well they work. And we touch on the music and cinematography, noting what works and what doesn’t. It’s an interesting monster movie that certainly seems to have found its fans, even if Andy isn’t one of them. Check out the movie then tune in!

Film Sundries

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  Trailers of the Week
• Andy’s Trailer: Demolition — “I loved ‘Wild’ and ‘Dallas Buyers Club.’ Jake Gyllenhaal is on a genius streak right now. The story is right up my alley. Everything is lining up for me as far as being in tune with this film. Can’t wait!"
• Pete’s Trailer: The Jungle Book — “So, I learned that this is a movie of terrifying photo-realistic jungle animals fighting over a young boy. And singing. So there’s that."

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