Hostel II Is Terrifyingly Boring
Posted June 25, 2007 at 9:26 AM
I went to see Hostel II over the weekend and I thought I would send out a warning - if you are planning on seeing it, DON'T! It is insanely boring. I was looking at the reviews and people seem to think this one is sadistic and evil and pushes the envelope even further than the first one. This could not be farther from the truth. Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't really like the first one. I thought it was also a bit boring and it seemed to be split up into two disjointed movies; but, at least it made me cringe and feel very uncomfortable at times and there was blood, boobies, and sex. This new vision of Hostel was like a watered down, appeal to the masses, not-really-trying-to-scare-anyone follow-up dud. It just felt like he [Eli Roth] was riding on the momentum of the original and therefore didn't really feel like putting any effort into this one.
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Now sure, this one did have something of a story and characters that you can kind of feel something for; but, the story is not that great. And, let's face it, we don't go to see movies like this for the story. If I wanted to see a good story, I would actually go see a good movie. We see movies like this so that we pee our pants and have to sleep with the lights on for a week. With no suspense, no boobs, no sex scenes, a little bit of blood, and practically no gore, the only chill running down my spine at the end of the film was the realization that I paid $11 to get into the theatre.
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The lead female, Lauren German, put on a good show. I love seeing women in "powerful" roles; I found her quite visually pleasing and I think she did a fine acting job. I don't remember seeing her in anything else, but I hope to see her in the future.
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Reader Comments
Because I thought the first one sucks SOOO bad, I'm not even going to bother with the second one. What a waste of money, and time.
I was going to watch Hostel II this weekend. Since you gave it such a stellar recommendation, i'll save the 11$.
Maybe you should do more movie reviews and put a paypal donation link on the left. Those who saved money from your reviews could donate 20% of the savings....
@Dan,
First off, that would be sweet :) When I was a kid, I wanted to be a film critic. But, then I watched film critics and realized that they look waaaaay deeper into movies than I do.
Yeah, I clearly do not recommend this movie. Wait for it to come out on HBO. Because there is no real gore, I don't think that the big screen will add anything special. It's not like one of those movies that sucks, but you want to see it on the big screen anyway cause you know the effects will not be as cool on a small screen.
I have found that a lot of guys don't like this movie. I have a suspicion that it has something to do with the scene involving... err... graphic castration. A rather uncomfortable moment for most males in the cinema where I saw it.
I thought Hostel was OK, very gory but a little formulaic. Hostel II was billed as being more extreme, yet Eli Roth had two choices here: make the same movie again with more gore (boring, and how much more can you do to the human body with today's jaded, gore-desensitized audiences?) or do something completely different, turn the audience's expectations around - which is what he chose.
I liked it a lot. And not just because of the castration scene.
@Kay,
Actually, the scene you are referring to is where I started to actually get interested in her character. I thought to myself, all right! Now we have a strong female lead (something that I LOVE to see, especially females that fight, ala Million Dollar Baby, Serenity, Fifth Element, etc); now it's time for revenge... and the movie just kind of petered out after that.
In the first one, the escape / revenge / suspense scene was a good amount of the time - plenty of time for me to sit there rooting for someone. This new movie gave me no cause or opportunity to root for anyone.
move wasn't all that bad. i just never felt all that scared for the characters except for the first. it was more drawn out and the sounds of the blade on her skin was sickening. not to mention when her throat is slashed and all her blood came pooring out.
the other two scenes with the girls were lame. never even showed bijou get killed. her's was more comical than anything. then german's was pathetic and totally unrealistic. she tries to convince him she wanted to have sex and her lines were so bogus but he falls for it. then she gets the upper hand and has a pair is scissors to his junk and he calls her the 'c' word. like that's really gonna happen. he would have been begging to spare himself. what bothers me is how a woman castrating a man makes her 'powerful' and vindicated. that's such a farce. women come away from this movie thinking that's how things ought to be. that's justice. turn the situation around. if a woman is about to kill someone in there and she has her vagina ripped out or boobs cut off or violently raped, it's seen is overly disgusting and cruel. there's no vindication or 'powerful' message from that. the double-standard is absurd. also, when was the last time a movie (non-porno) has shown an actual vagina. i mean, the actual clit. never...that i know of.
