Better than "Cabin Fever", which isn't saying much.....

Rating: 4/10 (9 January 2006)

When I heard about "Hostel" I was really intrigued. It looked like a really good premise for a thriller. My curiosity was titillated even more with the "Quentin Tarantino Presents" tagged above the title. After I saw it, I can not describe how disappointed I was.
First of all, Eli Roth seems to be a pretty good director. The way he handles certain scenes of this film were great. I will also say that he can come up with some good ideas for movies (yes, even "Cabin Fever" seemed like a good idea). Hostel's weakness is the way it was written. It seemed to follow the exact same formula as "Cabin Fever", only to a bit more of an extreme (i.e. more sex, more gore). The whole first act of the movie is basically porn. That's it. Roth as a writer obviously feels that making flat and some times unnecessary characters is a good idea. Even the story was non-existent. It's just as the summary says it is.
But I will say, I gave this movie some points for the third act. The payoff towards the end of the film worked excellently. It worked so well, that people in the audience were cheering and clapping for the character. That, is what made it better than the droll "Cabin Fever".
Better than "Cabin Fever" but still not able to be called a legitimately good movie, I give it a 4 out of 10.