"CATCH YOU FUCKERS AT A BAD TIME?"

Posts Tagged ‘Bong Joon-ho’

Mickey 17

Monday, March 31st, 2025

MICKEY 17 is one of those lucky breaks humanity gets every once in a while where for some reason some American company gives South Korean master Bong Joon Ho (THE HOST, PARASITE) a whole bunch of money for a big, weird, wonderful English-language goof that they have no idea how to make money off of. The fucking Weinsteins did it as distributors of SNOWPIERCER, Netflix did it with OKJA, now it’s Warner Bros.’ turn with a movie that shares elements with both of those but speaks directly to this specific era of capitalistic exploitation, idiotic cults of asshole personality, and just all-around reckless stupidity. But in a fun sci-fi way. It’s based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, but its sensibilities are unmistakably Bong Joon Ho.

Robert Pattinson (THE ROVER) stars and narrates as the 17th clone of Mickey Barnes, a harmless doofus who, in debt to a loan shark over his failed macaron business, tries to flee by signing up as an “expendable” on a flight to colonize the snowy planet Niflheim. This is not a common line of work – everybody acts shocked when he writes it on the form, and keeps double-checking that he read the paperwork. Basically, nobody’s been stupid enough to sign up before, but he agreed to it out of ignorance and because a lady’s shampoo scent reminded him of his mom. He admits this with embarrassment but also like he’s telling a funny story you might be able to relate to. (read the rest of this shit…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Reviews, Comedy/Laffs, Science Fiction and Space Shit | 23 Comments »

Parasite

Wednesday, December 4th, 2019

This is a rare one for me: I saw PARASITE having no clue what it was about at all. Completely fresh. I saw the trailer 1 (one) time and didn’t understand what was going on. But I liked the three movies I’ve seen by director Bong Joon-ho (SNOWPIERCER) enough to just take the hype at its word and go see it. And since two of those movies (THE HOST and OKJA) are strange creature movies I honestly didn’t even know if the title was a metaphor or if there was also going to be an actual parasitic monster at some point.

Anyway it’s not a huge surprise twist movie or anything, but I enjoyed the lack of expectations. So I guess only read this if you’ve seen it or don’t care about that. (contains spoilers, mostly vague.)

It’s the story of the Kim family – father Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho, THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD), mother Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin), son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik, TRAIN TO BUSAN) and daughter Ki-jeong (Park So-dam, THE SILENCED) – who seem to take economic struggle in stride. They live together in a cluttered basement infested by stink bugs, with a window facing an alley where they often see a drunk guy peeing. In the opening scene they discover that their neighbor added a password to her wi-fi, but they can connect to a nearby cafe if they crawl into the top corner of the apartment on the raised platform with the toilet. Which is important because they need WhatsApp to communicate with the young manager of Pizza Generation (Jung Yi-seo) who pays them to fold boxes. (read the rest of this shit…)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Comedy/Laffs, Drama, Reviews | 63 Comments »

Okja

Monday, September 11th, 2017

This year THE HOST and SNOWPIERCER director Bong Joon-ho made a truly one-of-a-kind movie. OKJA is a sweet girl-and-her-creature tale like MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO after it has been swallowed by a vicious satire of corporate greed and man’s treatment of animals. It’s produced by Netflix with an international cast, many of them speaking English, but its wild shifts in tone make it feel safely within the tradition of South Korean cinema.

It already seems bug-nuts from the opening, when aggressively-faux-enlightened Mirando Corporation CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton, CONSTANTINE) gives her colorful presentation about the “discovery” of the allegedly miraculously eco-friendly “superpig” species and their plan to give them to farmers in 26 cities around the world to raise for ten years using their local traditions and then to crown one as the best.

The decade passes, and young Mija (Ahn Seo-Hyun, the daughter in THE YELLOW SEA) lives an idyllic life in some mountains in Korea helping her grandfather (Byun Hee-bong, MEMORIES OF MURDER) take care of their superpig Okja. She’s bigger than a hippo – looks like a giant Eeyore – but limber enough to leap around like Ang Lee’s Hulk. Mija plays with her and rolls around on top of her belly and climbs inside her mouth to brush her teeth for her. (read the rest of this shit…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Comedy/Laffs, Reviews, Science Fiction and Space Shit | 13 Comments »

Snowpiercer

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2014

tn_snowpiercerSNOWPIERCER, the Hollywood-stars/English words debut of South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, is the second best train movie I saw on the big screen in June. While UNDER SIEGE 2: DARK TERRITORY is DIE HARD on a boat on a train, SNOWPIERCER is  the post-apocalypse on a train. The whole world has been frozen over, eradicating all life except for the lucky bastards that got onto a giant train that has been traveling a globe-spanning track for 17 years.

It has similar themes of class inequality to ELYSIUM and the HUNGER GAMESes, but I liked it quite a bit more than those. The concept is that the poor people live in squalor at the back and the rich people in luxury at the front. It’s a brutal dictatorship; the tail dwellers get threatened and beaten, limbs severed as punishment for defiance, fed nothing but green jelly protein bars. Every once in a while a lady in a pretty yellow dress comes back with a tape measure to size up which of their children to steal. You can just feel the anger and humiliation of the people when this shit happens. It’s easy to hate those motherfuckers. (read the rest of this shit…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Reviews, Science Fiction and Space Shit | 52 Comments »

  • Hey bud, thanks for reading.

    Don't feel obligated, but here are some

  • WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHIT OUT OF VERN & OUTLAWVERN.COM

    if that's your thing:

  • 1. Patreon

    Toss me a couple bucks a month, support the good shit, also get access to a bunch of exclusive writing. This is my primary source of writing money that has allowed me to cut down to part time at the day job. Thank you!

  • 2. Buy my books from your local bookseller or somebody

    click here for my Amazon author page

    (NOTE: My ten year contract has passed on the Titan books, so I don't get residuals on them like I do WORM ON A HOOK and NIKETOWN, but I would love for you to read them because I'm proud of them)

    EXTRA CREDIT: Review them on Amazon! That would really help me out. Unless you didn't like them, in which case forget I said anything.

  • 3. If you ever buy from Amazon, go through my links or search engines



    (you pay the same amount you were gonna pay anyway they cut me a little slice)

  • I also have an Amazon UK one:

    (I can't get the search box widget to work anymore, so click on MOONWALKER and then search for what you want.)

  • 4. My exciting line of fashion and leisure products

    (I get a couple bucks per item, you get a cool t-shirt, mug or lifestyle item)

  • 5. Spread the word

    Tell your friends about my reviews and my books and everything. Only cool people though please, we don't need a bunch of suckers and/or chumps around here.

    THANKS EVERYBODY. YOUR FRIEND, VERN

    * * * *

  • Recent commentary and jibber-jabber

    • Curt on Army of Darkness: “ARMY OF DARKNESS had a showing this month at my local indie/arthouse theater as part of their annual Halloween series.…” Oct 29, 02:00
    • Muh on Weapons: “I’m with Dread, the ending was amazing. Everyone I know who’s seen it has loved that sheyit. I simply threw…” Oct 28, 21:10
    • Skani on Weapons: “SPOILERS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Amy Madigan’s death fell flat for me. I appreciated the symmetry and karma of it all, but I thought…” Oct 28, 19:13
    • Dreadguacamole on Weapons: ““I didn’t care for it. It’s a lot of buildup for not a whole lot of payoff” I dunno. There…” Oct 28, 17:58
    • Skani on Weapons: “SPOILERS The mystery and general world-building in GET OUT are both much better. WEAPONS sets itself up as a sort…” Oct 28, 15:55
    • BuzzFeedAldrin on It Chapter Two: “For all of you turtle freaks out there, the miniseries Welcome to Derry seemingly goes out of its way to…” Oct 28, 09:07
    • Muh on Bring Her Back: “I had REALLY thought she was going to suceed and the daughter was going to turn away from the mother…” Oct 28, 08:33
    • Muh on Weapons: “I’m sure the cops DID triangulate, but they had already done a search of the house in question and found…” Oct 28, 08:30
    • Mr. Majestyk on Weapons: “Having slept on it, I’ve decided to leaven my criticism a little. It is watchable. I did not feel like…” Oct 28, 08:20
    • MaggieMayPie on It Chapter Two: “CJ it’s funny that you mention the tv miniseries alongside Twin Peaks because those are the two things that after…” Oct 28, 06:45
    • CJ Holden on It Chapter Two: “BTW, I do think that the TV version still holds up. Well, “holds up”. When it came out, it seemed…” Oct 28, 01:45
    • Adam C aka TaumpyTearrs on Skinned Deep: “I read this review last year, filed it away on my watchlist, and forgot as much as possible in the…” Oct 28, 00:53
    • Mr. Majestyk on Other: “Filming a zombie outbreak in one shot is a lot easier when said outbreak consists of one person at a…” Oct 27, 20:19
    • Mr. Majestyk on Weapons: “I’d almost convinced myself I was going to like this one, but sadly, I didn’t care for it. It’s a…” Oct 27, 19:37
    • Comrade Question on It Chapter Two: “IT was a super fun time in the theater with a crowd. IT HARDER was a good movie to watch…” Oct 27, 18:43

  • Recent Commented on Posts

  • Most Comments