Mickey 17 (2025)

Mickey Barnes is an Expendable. Essentially a disposable crew member on a space mission, he serves as a human crash dummy used for test experiments and dangerous missions that usually result in fatality, at which point he gets "reprinted" with all of his prior memories intact, like a video game character. The only rule being that only one clone can exist at a time. It's an intriguing premise for a film, but unfortunately the execution is all over the place. It's a big, sprawling mess that falls disappointingly short of the source material.

3 creepers out of 5

Parasite (2019)

AKA: 기생충 (Gisaengchung)

A poor family of grifters attempt to ingratiate themselves within the employ of a wealthy household. A searing satire of monumental proportions, the way this film builds and builds upon itself is brilliant. This stuff is as captivating as Game of Thrones. It's such a fun twisty-turny ride, I'd rather not say anything more about it and let the viewer experience it for themselves. Submitted as a non-English entry at the Oscars, it won awards for Best International Feature as well as Best Picture, the first film of its kind to do so.

5 blinking lights out of 5

The Host (2006)

A screw-up father gets his dog day when a fishy mutation descends upon the town in which he lives and begins snacking on civilians.
The typically bleak attitude of Korean drama is dyed blackly humorous. I felt bad laughing at the family’s misery, but it was hilarious.
The crisis not only spurs a stepping up to the mark for selfless reasons, it also restores something that was absent from the protagonists lives. Sometimes the thing worth living for is the same as the thing worth dying for.
The CGI creature is well-realised, but in truth it could be anything, the actual focus isn't on it. It's not Hollywood. Bong Joon-Ho’s direction is excellent, proficiently adaptive to each scene’s differing requirements.

4 cold beers out of 5

SNOWPIERCER [2013]

With Park Chan-wook's Stoker and Kim Ji-woon's The Last Stand both being the South Korean director's first Hollywood films, it only seemed inevitable that Bong Joon-ho would come out with Snowpiercer the same year.
An absurd sci-fi social satire, the dark film is filled with wildly strange metaphors galore, making it seems like a bizarre hybrid of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Terry Gilliam's best work.  As a piece of art it excels, with careful attention to detail, heavy character moments and layer upon layer of conflict, while as a Hollywood film it might seem a bit strange for many but packs enough punch and heroism to please those willing to indulge in this intriguing world.

4 poisonous fish out of 5

Salinui chueok (Memories Of Murder) - 2003

Clumsy & silly first act of this Korean mystery thriller almost turns you off.

Excellent believable characters, setting and ending make up for it.

3.5 panties on the head out of 5