I was once a film buff. Past tense. Before I had kids and I still had a little bit of disposable income and time, I would regularly drive forty to sixty minutes to the nearest indie cinemas to catch movies.
I even tried to start a film club once with some of my friends and their wives/girlfriends. I had big dreams of showing double features based on director, genre, leading actor/actress, screenwriter, etc. In my mind, we would sit around and watch the films and then have a big discussion about them afterward.
So I started sending out feelers to my friends.
Me: Want to come over to our house and watch Citizen Kane?
Them: Nah. Let's rent Joe Dirt instead.
I immediately knew my idea was dead in the water before I fired up the DVD player.
Why am I telling you this? Because last night I caught a flick that was worth telling you guys about.
It's been in limited release for a while now, so I'm sure those of you in the major metropolises have already had a chance to see it if you wished. But since I live in the South, it takes some time before movies that don't have numbers at the end of their titles to trickle down our way.
The movie is called Gwoemul (The Host). It's a South Korean flick. It's subtitled (don't groan). But when I read a review that likened it to a cross between Jaws and Little Miss Sunshine, I knew then that I had to see this movie.
The movie is about a monster (picture a mutant catfish with legs) that lives in the Han River. When a man's daughter is captured by the monster, he and the rest of his dysfunctional family band together to save her after the government refuses to help them.
While the movie can been viewed as pro-environment and anti-American (the monster is created after an Army pathologist orders a man to pour formaldehyde into a sink that empties into the Han River), it is, at its heart, a good old-fashioned monster flick. And unlike most monster flicks, you're not teased with a second of a fin here, a splash of a tail here, etc. You see the entire monster before the first reel is changed.
So if anyone's seen Gwoemul, feel free to email me if you'd like to discuss it. Or we can talk about Joe Dirt. Your call.
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P.S. Sunday is Mr. Big Dubya's birthday. Go by his virtual birthday party and wish him a good one. And be careful at your party, dude. I've heard turning 40 can be very taxing on one's body.
Song of the day: My Philosophy by Boogie Down Productions
Film Slob
