ehhhhhh....

Rating: 5/10 (8 January 2006)

To begin with, I just saw the cut version of the movie, so perhaps the uncut version was much better.
I am most disappointed with the first 30-45 minutes of the film. This is where Eli lost his way from cabin fever. The time was wasted mostly on T and A and partying scenes. In most effective movies of this genre, and I feel three things were missing in this movie in the beginning.
First, is something to jump start the movie, such as the gunfight in the devils rejects, or the opening murder in Halloween.
The second is character compassion. What I mean by this, is the characters are well developed and a personal or intimate moment is revealed to the viewer. This in turn draws the viewer in more to the character's pain when something unfortunate happens to them. Kind of like in the first saw, I could care less thanks to the Princess Bride idiot, despite whatever was happening to him. So despite these guys getting tortured, it was not that effective.
Finally, are certain hints or elements that bind the movie together as they go along, other than the kids who kill for candy. Given, the only one I picked up on was this, which began half way through the movie. Question for you all.... Would have the one surviving character still have gone back to save the Asian girl, if he had not witnessed a girl drowning in his youth? The movie needed more of those character traits. But the whole guy on the train thing, I figured him to be a torturer right off the bat.. They were showing way too much of him to not be involved.
The non-lethal euthanasia involving the girl's eye was a nice touch.
As far as the second half is concerned, it wasn't that bad. It had the whole Last House on the Left feel, where an unlikely killer returns the favor for all those involved in his friends deaths and his tortures as he comes by them.
All and all, I gave it right down the middle: because the beginning was almost useless, and the end was good.
My advise for those who are into this genre: Stick with more Indy films, like Eli's first one.