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30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The ultimate tourist trap, October 28, 2007
The first time you watch "Hostel" you leave remembering two things: an insane amount of sex and nudity, and some truly brutal torture sequences. The media ignoranty dubbed it a new genre, "torture porn". This film is actually rather tame when compared to some of Italy's 70's horror, grindhouse flicks like "Cannibal Holocaust", and some of Asia's current horror masters. Nontheless, horror fans drooled, sqeamish movie-goers and media watchdogs were offended, then everybody moved on. The truth is this: "Hostel" is the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" of our generation. After taking this so-called "director's cut" re-release as an opportunity to revisit a recent horror film I remembered fondly -if mostly for the two reasons stated above- I came to realize why so many people (not the least of which is Quentin Tarantino) believe in Eli Roth as a horror savior.
"Hostel" is a film layered with subtle humor that builds suspense beautifully and gives the audience exactly what they want to see while making them feel as though they've seen worse things than they actually have; all TCM hallmarks. The characters, obnoxiously American protagonists and European antagonists alike, are all both likeable, depraved, and almost feel like people you may know or have met somewhere before. You laugh with them, you scream with them, and you wonder what your own friends and family are truly capable of. Also reminiscent of TCM is the slaughterhouse feel one gets from the entire process of this torture industry where angry Europeans can take out their frustration with Americans and other tourists for a fee, thus comparing the suffering of the victims to that of animals harvested for slaughter. Be it simply for irony's sake, vegetarian propaganda, or both; it is nicely done. Had I reviewed this flick after one veiwing, I'd have given it 4 stars, tops, but having spent a little more time with "Hostel", I've found that there really is much more than meets the eye here. It really is a damn near flawless horror film with lots of little jokes I missed the first time around (keychain anybody?) and a final act that is so delightfully insane you can't help but smile as Roth intentionally pushes the limits of implausibility to comical levels while giving the audience bloody satisfaction. I love it.
While these DVD's are packed with extras that the studio apparently wouldn't allow Roth to include in the intitial release, as a director's cut this release fails miserably. The film itself is entirely unchanged except for an alternate ending. And that ending is awful, nonsensical, confounding, out of character, and pretty much inferior to the original cut in every possible way. So why the 5 stars? Because Roth was wise enough to include both versions so that you can choose to watch the original unrated version with the good ending intact. No harm, no foul. There are no less than four commentaries, tons of lengthy featurettes, around 20 minutes of deleted scenes, and an interview with the most hardcore director in the business, Japan's twisted and talented Takashi Miike (who has a cameo in the film) among other extras. Many of these special features were on the first DVD so this release is really only for those who have put off buying this movie. And if you haven't yet, now is the time.
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153 of 196 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dark, nihilistic, misogynistic...but somewhat flawed, February 27, 2006
I may be one of the few people who actually enjoyed Eli Roth's first film, Cabin Fever, despite the many inherent flaws to the story, direction and all-over-the-place feel. I never bought into the tagline for that film as once of the most horrific films this generation. I've been watching horror films for as long as I can remember and Cabin Fever doesn't even scratch the surface of what constitutes a great horror film. But it did show me that Eli Roth was serious about genre and acknowledges and honors his roots and influences.
Hostel is Roth's sophomore effort, and just like Rob Zombie with his second film (The Devil's Rejects) he shows improvement as a filmmaker and continues to show that he respects the genre he's chosen to be in. Hostel is an exercise in hate, pain and nihilism. There really are no sympathetic characters in the film. Roth instead shows just how debased, cruel and inhumane people can be towards each other. Whether its through verbal, physical and intellectual means. I must point out that this film is not the torture-porn that alot of media-types call it. The gore and torture really doesn't start until fully halfway into the film. Everything before the second half begins can be summed us as soft-core porn. There's alot of nudity and sex in this first half and sets-up the three characters played by Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson and Eythor Gudjonsson.
These three college students are shown as boorish, misogynistic, insensitive louts who wish nothing more from their European vacation than sex, drugs, sex, drugs and more sex. It's this behavior that lures them to a town in Slovakia. An Eastern European, Soviet Bloc-era town where the women are stunning and horny to do whatever with foreign men. So, the trio takes off for this haven of horny, easy, beautiful women and the soft-core porn sequences continues once they arrive. But intermixed within these sequences are small bits and hints of dread and uneasiness. There's a certain sense of decay to the town and its inhabitants despite the normal scenery.
The second half promptly begins once they arrive in town and check into the hsotel. The gore mentioned by most reviewers are pretty graphic for what was finally given an R-rating. For people like myself and other horror aficionados the gore in Hostel is something we haven't seen before. The gore and torture scenes are in-your-face and Roth owes alot of thanks to Takashi Miike's Audition in how the scenes are presented. Roth's style of directing Hostel really brings to mind Miike's cult favorite. Takashi Miike even makes a brief appearance in the film.
One thing that I wanted Roth to do which he seemed to have pulled back from was going all-out in presenting Hostel as a horror exploitation film. This film tries to emulate the gory exploitation Italian and American films of the mid-70's to early 80's. Maybe the MPAA had forced Roth to trim certain scenes to get an R-rating. In certain scenes one could almost feel and sense that something was left out. Maybe the DVD release with an unrated, director's cut will shed some light to this. Roth's influences are plain to see, but he falls slightly short of reaching the lofty heights that Romero, Miike, Fulci, Craven (early), Hooper, Gordon and Argento established with their grand guignol works.
Hostel is a very good second offering from Eli Roth who really seem to like the horror genre and is constantly trying to pay it homage. His direction is much better and gone are the campy, almost comedic sequences from Cabin Fever. The film does fail to convey anything original to the genre, but succeeds enough in honoring its bloody past. Roth went from a genre-hack to very promising horror auteur with Hostel. I am hoping his next project is less of an homage to horror's past and he actually adds to its future legacy. I'm happy to give this film a grade of 7/10.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The New Age of Artless Slasher Films, July 12, 2007
Hostel is about three young men; Americans Paxton and Josh and their Icelandic friend Oli, who travel to Amsterdam in search of drugs and hookers. In the long run they take their party to a quasi-Slovakia. Oli goes missing and so does some Japanese girl. No big deal right? So Paxton and Josh decide to party with some Russian girls and get a little bit too hammered. So much so that Paxton ends up passing out in a storage room. Josh wakes up in a dungeon and some Dutch guy starts to torture him, using a power drill and cutting his Achilles tendons. By the time Paxton gets back to the hostel, everyone is missing, well almost everyone. Josh finds those Russian girls again and starts pressing them for answers. He ends up finding an abandoned warehouse where people pay to torture prisoners and he gets snatched up and tortured himself. I'll stop there as things unfold in a fairly fun, albeit predictable manner.
If that kind of story interests you and you're the kind of person that likes to watch excruciating torture scenes, then Hostel is the film for you. But don't worry, it doesn't desensitize because Hostel's director is so amateur in handling his actors you will not see Josh, Paxton, Oli and their international congregation of half-nude nymphs as real people. They are like dolls and the fake setting is their dollhouse. You see, the Slovakia we see in Hostel is not real. That's right Eli Roth has said "Americans do not even know that this country exists. My film is not a geographical work but aims to show Americans' ignorance of the world around them." You've got to be kidding me? Isn't he just as ignorant as his audience? And why isn't his audience offended by these comments anyway? With comments like that it makes me wonder, is Hostel not supposed to be convincing? I'm not supposed to take this movie seriously? What is the point then? Anyway, Roth has yet to show that he can make a movie with real acting and a convincing screenplay. So far, that places Hostel squarely in the great tradition of crappy slasher movies. Roth is not John Carpenter. He is not even Steve Miner. He is simply a guy who capitalizes on a young blood thirsty audience that wants to test itself.
I feel like I really just ripped into Hostel. Something about it bothered me deeply. On the other hand, something about it also impressed me. I was provoked in two different directions. The accuracy and compelling elements that I all too often take for granted in films I think are quality, were absent in Hostel, but that doesn't mean that Hostel isn't a unique and terrifying experience. I cringed more here than in many films. I thought Takashi Miike's Audition (Miike makes a brief cameo here, kudos to Roth for respecting his influence) was a classic in the horror genre and had Hostel been any bit as compelling as Audition was, it would've gained great praise from this viewer.
There is something hopeless about Roth's films. Like many good horror filmmakers, Roth will not turn away and will dispatch of a traditional hero-type in a gruesome way without even thinking twice. No one is safe in a Roth film and his unflinching murders scenes are as intense as any, and they work. Some people critically call his films "torture porn" and I'm not so sure I disagree with that label. Then again as a deterrent, I'm not so sure that is such disparaging classification in terms of horror films either. Hostel and Hostel II made $105 million worldwide combined, and together they cost about one tenth that amount. "Torture porn" sounds like a market brand more than a criticism. But that does not make Hostel a great movie.
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