Killer mutant fish terrorizing South Korea

Hello again, my wife and I just watched a great movie that I feel I need to post about.

The Host was an excellent movie, one that really brings home the Halloween spirit. It certainly was not your typical monster movie, this one had style, a great story, good acting and some really heartfelt moments. It also had a balanced amount of suspence and a few jumpers.

This movie is South Korean (we watched it in Korean w/ subtitles) and it featured some really talented actors. The girl who gets kidnapped by the monster was amazing and the main characters really seemed to play up their roles to the fullest, there were many comical moments that worked well. I was also very impressed with the effects (the monster was all CGI, but it was very believeable).

OK, I don't have much more to say, but I recommend this movie to all who enjoy suspenseful thrillers, this has it all and don't let the fact that it resides in "Foreign" section deter you from renting/buying it!

The Host gets 4.5/5 chicken nuggets (delicious).

"Shane! Shane! Come back, Shane!"

This is sad. It's 10:30AM and I've finished my 2nd movie of the day. To be honest, I started my first movie (Shooter, see my last post) yesterday, but none the less, I woke up early to drive my wife to the airport, and then ended up finishing 2 movies before noon! Sad.

Since I just started this blog, I'm kind of pumped about posting, so anyway, here is my short review of the movie I just finished, and old western called Shane.

It was pretty darn good. Made in the early 50's, Shane is a nice movie set in Alabama after the Civil War took place and farmers are laying claim to their land. The story focuses on a family and a mysterious man named Shane who band together along with their neighbors to fight a man who has taken the liberty of oppressing the settlers. Anyway, enough of a plot synopsis, you can read it on your own at imdb or Wikipedia. I'm a sucker for old movies, they really seem to captivate me (as long as they were done well). The lead actors really were very believeable, the only person that was a little annoying was the young boy Joey. None the less, the story was classic, the movie was inspiring and the execution of the film was very good. It seemed to have been nominated for 6 Academy Awards, only winning best Cinematography for color films. Also, I only recognized on of the actors (I'm working on broadening my knowledge of pre 1970's actors) and that was Jack Palance. He played "Curly" in the City Slickers movies! The film's score was very good, turns out the composer (Victor Young) was nominated for 22 Oscars and he only won one posthumously.

Any who, I found out about this film through the AFI Top 100 Movies list and it rightly deserves to be there.
I give Shane 4.5/5 cowboy hats and think anyone who's interested in classic Westerns should check it out, it's a very believeable and touching story.

Let's start with a short review

Well, I'm joining the ranks of millions who've started posting life snippets online. Well, all I can offer to this infinite wealth of knowledge, gossip and b.s. is some thoughts on one of the things that I do a lot. Watch movies. I've seen plenty in my lifetime (albeit I've only been around only 23 years but I've seen plenty to kick some serious tush in "Scene It"!)
I'll get right to it. The last movie I just finished watching on DVD about 1/2 hour ago was Shooter.

A decent flick starring Mark Wahlberg, Danny Glover, Michael Peña, and Kate Mara to name a few. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the same guy who directed Training Day (pretty good), King Arthur (good action/storyline) & Tears of the Sun (not so much).

Completely fashioned out of the action movie template (with little to add) it flowed well. The camera work was fine and the suspense was good. The action sequences and fighting were well executed, and the technical details were believable to a certain degree. There was little to be amazed at throughout the story, a few predictable twists and some slightly unexpected plot direction. It was based on the book Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter and I'm sure the book (as always) had more to offer. All this aside it was an enjoyable movie. There was good chemistry between Mark Wahlberg and Michael Peña and some humorous sequences between them. Also, I enjoyed Danny Glover's role, I've always been a fan of his work (can't go wrong with Angels in the Outfield!) Anyway, in summary, I'd give this a (drum roll please...)

3/5 gold coins (stars are so overused, and I think I'll pick a new object for every review, we'll see how that goes).

Hope you enjoyed, I'll probably rant about other things throughout the life of this blog, but it'll mostly be about movies.