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Sector 7

Sector 7

IF you don't think a South Korean monster movie is worth your time, you evidently haven't seen The Host, a terrific, wildly original 2006 thriller about an amphibious thingie that rises from the Han River and proceeds to gobble/kidnap various hapless humans. (The initial monster assault in The Host still stands as one of the great monster movie attack sequences ever.)

Released theatrically in South Korea last year, Sector 7 is mostly impressive for realizing a 3D monster-on-the-loose-on-an-oil-rig movie on an extremely modest budget, by western standards.

But the movie doesn't exactly live up to the precedent. It gives us a tough heroine (Ji-won Ha), frequently referred to by other characters as "Hard-ass," who seeks some kind of closure by discovering oil in a troublesome deep sea oil field between Korea and Japan, an endeavour that claimed the life of her father years earlier.

Upon the intervention of her uncle (Sung-kee Ahn), the oil rig enjoys some success... until various members of the crew start turning up dead, and the glittering little deep sea fish kept in an aquarium become the prime suspects in the murders.

It looks like a standard Hollywood production, including the movie's impressive monster, a huge, toothy CG critter capable of sneaking around under innumerable steel catwalks without drawing attention to itself.

The problem with Sector 7 is that it too much resembles the Hollywood creature feature, offering up a generic cast of monster chow.

A Korean monster movie promises something a little different. The Host delivered on that promise in spades. Sector 7 ... not so much. 'Ö'Ö

The Artist

YEAH, yeah, yeah, The Artist is in black and white, it's mostly silent and it's a pastiche of films from a bygone era.

If you had never heard of Guy Maddin, those things might be more impressive.

That is not to take away from the film's undeniable charm. Like the glorious 1952 musical Singin' in the Rain, the film is set in Hollywood during that era when silent movies were giving way to talkies.

That catches silent movie star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) by surprise. Soon, George's popularity is overtaken by a smitten fan, Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), an actress whose star is ascending when studio chief Al Zimmer (John Goodman) cancels all silent productions to make way for a slate of all-talkie productions.

George believes talking pictures are just a fad and proceeds to break away from the studio to write, direct, and star in his own epic film, a project that leaves him broke, unmarried and unemployed.

Dujardin, who won the best actor Oscar, has a great movie-star smile that is its own acting instrument. Finely tuned, it can suggest macho egotism, self-mockery, romantic arousal, tenderness, and even fatalistic surrender.

Without a doubt, Dujardin's mug is the most fascinating thing in the movie. 'Ö'Ö'Ö1/2

21 Jump Street

THE makers of this comedy do a fixer-upper reno on the old Johnny Depp TV series, transforming it into an odd-couple buddy-cop comedy. In a flashback to 2005, we meet the dorky Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and his polar opposite Jenko (Channing Tatum), an arrogant jock, while they're in their last year of high school. The two meet years later at police academy and become friends: Jenko helps Schmidt with the athletic demands of the program and Schmidt reciprocates by tutoring Jenko for his academic requirements.

After inevitably screwing up on the job, the officers are assigned to an undercover operation operating out of an abandoned church at the titular address. That's where the inevitable angry black captain (Ice Cube) explains the detail: youthful-looking cops must go undercover at local high schools, where they must track the source of a new killer drug called HFS.

Posing as brothers, the pair find that the social dynamic of high school has changed. The sensitive Schmidt is now deemed the cool kid and the hunky, hot-headed Jenko is an outcast who finds himself gravitating to the school's science nerds.

The movie has lots of fun goofing on action-movie clichés, especially with regards to explosions.

Yet the whole movie ultimately seems a disposable endeavour, despite its occasional laughs. It's a comedy based on a crappy '80s TV show. How good could it have been? 'Ö'Ö1/2

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

1. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

2. Safe House

3. Man on a Ledge

4. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

5. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

6. Goon

7. The Vow

8. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked

9. This Means War

10. The Grey

-- MTS TV, week ending June 24

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 28, 2012 E4