Over-hyped flick - makes Saw look original

Rating: 4/10 (10 January 2006)

I went to see Hostel with a friend who insisted we go. Personally, I was a bit afraid after hearing all the hype about this flick and comments like "the goriest movie ever made" and bla bla... Was I wrong.
The story is pretty ordinary and predictable, it's more a return to slasher movies of the 70's like "Texas chainsaw massacre". It does play on a common fear of being helpless and at the mercy of a sadist but it does it in a very "lazy" way, without any originality. It also re-uses the 1970's clichÃ© of showing boobs without much connection to the story.
The characters are sympathetic but they are "offed" so fast that we don't really have time to empathize with their fate. It's a lot of building up a capital of sympathy only to see it written off in a minute or two. The main evil female characters are two-dimensional bitches, and no justification is offered for their actions except pure greed.
The story is also very thin and would have easily fit into a 60 minutes TV format.
In summary, this movie is part Tobe Hopper, part Russ Meyer and part run of the mill B-movie. Seeing it made me appreciate the originality of Saw and Saw II.