Large sums of money exchanged hands at Cannes for this Korean monster movie. B-movies of this kind are rare nowadays but tend to be popular, almost as nostalgia.
But, stretched too far at almost two hours, Bong Joon-Ho's film about a huge fish-like creature that terrorises a hitherto peaceful bank of the Han River doesn't often know when to be frightening and when to elicit knowing giggles.
It's still fun, in a quite naïve way, as the US military concoct a chemical weapon of mass destruction to destroy it after putting it about that anyone going near it will die of a watery virus.
And we can identify with the eccentric family whose daughter is snatched back from halfway down the throat of the beast. I just know there'll be a sequel.
The Host + Short
Cert: 15
