Review:
Hostel
Country: USA
Year: 2005
Genres: Suspense, Thriller, Torture
Movie? [2**]
At one point I was wondering... how is this a real movie? The movie starts out so dumb for the first half of it... i almost recommend watching solely the second half by itself, if you choose to watch this one. By the second half, things start to happen, and thankfully they leave out a lot of the dumb guy "Uhh... what happened to Bill!??!" type dailogue. Instead they rely on a few people with blank stares and a lot of racial stereotypes. They aren't offensive, but you can tell the whole movie is dumbed down to a very low level. No thought is required for the normal viewer. The suspense is there, but dulled down.
Asian Extreme Tribute [3***]
Of course, when seeing something new that has Quentin T's name on it.. you should be looking out for those asian references. And there are plenty of throw-backs, a few of them subtle and dumb, one amazing. Indeed, I was shocked to see the man himself, Miike Takashi show up for a line in the movie. This was awesome. And his line pertty much has more meaning than the rest of the movie itself. Even better, it's impossible to understand his line until some more mysteries are revealed. It is such a fitting line for him, considering his films. But nonetheless, for a movie that is trying to give a little bit of asian suspense to the Hollywood audience, I don't feel like I have been given anything substantial besides this.
Idea [3***]
It is a decent idea for a plot, that is for a plot that is going to require some torture. Actually, the way the second half unfolds is a little interesting. But only a little. Again, the first part of the movie doesn't even have an idea. It's sex, drugs, and some cock-fighting between a few guys. Luckily one of the characters grows up a little bit when he see's some of the consequences of his surroundings.
Overall [2**]
Overall, it's dumb and fails to do several of the things that it tries to do. With my experience with asian cinema, I feel this has not been inspired much at all by them. Give me a girl who tortures, someone who cuts off their tongue, or just some part where i have to say "WTF?" There are a limited number of killings in detail, only one of which is pretty unique. I really wanted to see some blood and gore after seeing the trailer and intro, but it's actually pretty clean if you take out the 20 seconds of gory parts. Even then, it is spaced out too much have any substantial feeling. Only part of this movie is good, and even there it could have been better. It gets a 1* for the first half and a 3*** for the second.
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