Chaw (2009)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

How sad is this?

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

I watched the English translation of this Korean monster movie. The original movie is a silly throw-back (in the vein of Lake Placid) about a killer boar. But what's best about it is the absolutely hysterically awful English dubbing. It is easily some of the best bad acting I have ever enjoyed (including every Godzilla movie ever). It must truly be seen to be believed. The film itself is actually a fairly amusing, purposely silly 'monster' movie. Someone else on here said that this movie feels like something David Lynch might have made if he ever made a creature feature... and they were completely right, with all of the bizarre seemingly nonsensical characters and offbeat dialog. But, at over 2 hours, runs way too long. Still, I recommend this film for any fan of strange movies or creature features. But do yourself a HUGE favor and watch the English-dubbed version over a subtitled one.

Chawz is another entry in the horror/comedy genre, this one coming from South Korea. Not as good as The Host, also from South Korea, a couple of years ago, but there is still some enjoyment to be had. The plot moves along a little too slowly for this type of film and has more than one similarity with the plot of the original Jaws. The comedy plays more to the slapstick side, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your taste in comedy. I personally found a few gags that made me smile, but nothing that made me laugh. The actors do a convincing job with their characters, but no one will blow you away or steal the show. The visual effects are good, using a mix of practical and computer generated, but not up to the normal standard of major North American films. If you have seen other movies of this type from this part of the world, the effects are on par. If you're expecting something along the lines of Slither or Army of Darkness, you most likely will be disappointed or even bored with this. But if you have seen The Host or Tokyo Zombie, this film is similar in tone and pacing and while never reaching the quality of The Host or the comedic absurdity of Tokyo Zombie, Chawz is an enjoyable monster movie. Flawed, but enjoyable.

No this isn't a Bruce Lee film. This is a South Korean giant wild killer pig movie – "another one?", I hear you sigh.When the self proclaimed "crimeless village" of Sameri in South Korea is beset by a 500kg 6 foot tall killer boar it's fair to say the locals are unprepared and largely incapable of handling the beastie. After all, all bar one of the cops are a bunch of lazy idiots, the new guy arrived in town that day and the local citizens would win a "Crazy-off" with the 90s TV town of Twin Peaks hands down.Locals start falling off the map and reappearing as various limbs and fragments of body-parts, newly interred corpses are summarily exhumed, and buses full of curious city folk show up to pick the local organic produce – but are really there to get Chaw-gnawed.So outside help is sourced, including experienced and renowned hunters, a pack of dogs, and some skylarking adventure seekers. The locals want the thing dead, the hunters want trophies and a bunch of greenies just want everyone to get along. The hunt goes on and a large pig is taken down – ce-le-brate good times… Come on? Nope, it turns out that the big fat beast wasn't Oprah on another of her around the world publicity stunts but the psycho killer pig's missus.Now: it's personal.As tends to happen in these film a rag tag bunch of disparate individuals forms to take on Porky high in the mountains that flank the village, each with their own specialty, motivation and story to tell – usually late at night around a campfire in a moment of surprising vulnerability.Now this is a big scary animal movie so I can't finish without discussing the big scary animal, and this is where Chaw really disappoints. In a few scenes Chaw is a guy(s) in a suit and in close ups and confined spaces it looks like a puppet. Both of these efforts were acceptable… in long shots and action sequences however Chaw was 100% distracting CGP – Computer Generated Pork. The size and weight of Chaw seemed to vary greatly in shot to shot, he had no obvious momentum or force when he was changing direction or running, and in certain scenes he just looked damned… cuddly.In the early going they were wise to minimise the sightings and on screen depiction of Chaw, towards the end when he was all over the shop I almost laughed every time he appeared on screen – especially when he morphed into cuddly-wuddly piggy-wiggy for some shots.Chaw has no real gore at all to speak of, most of the deaths appear offscreen and the only real evidence aside from muffled screams and quick cutaways are the random body parts alluded to earlier. There is way too much exposition and unnecessary character development for what is essentially a silly B flick with an audience only demanding "get to the killer pig!", leaving us with a 90 minute film that unfortunately takes two hours to watch.In this way it reminded me of The Host from a couple years back, but while that film supplied a carefully rendered, original beastie as the primary threat Chaw is only able to proffer a size changing, largely unreal – and often fluffy! – giant pork chop.Final Rating – 5 / 10. For most lovers of slightly obscure cinema "South Korean killer pig" flick is a big enough hook to initiate a search for the video shop card – it sure was for me. But Chaw is one little piggie that should have stayed home.

Cop is sent to a small village in the country when he listed, jokingly, "anywhere" as he second choice for assignment. Once there he has to deal with not only his wife and crazy mother, but also the local loonies who are in danger thanks to a man eating giant boar.Odd mix of comedy and horror is basically an off the wall version of Jaws but set in the woods. The bits and characters are very compelling, however there are so many strands and so many characters that the film never manages to juggle any of them successfully so the film never satisfies. Its not a bad movie, its just one that resembles a stew made from the finest ingredients but still fails to taste good because nothing works together well.Given the choice I'd rent it and then watch it with friends.