pretty good little horror ditty

Rating: 8/10 (26 July 2006)

I enjoyed the movie more than most commentators it appears, and not just cause it was bloody and had lots of boobies. The first 20 mins are just full of titties titties titties and yes, there are plenty of homophobic remarks that make us (or at least me) not so supportive our alleged heroes. but after the titties, the real fun begins. --SPOILER -- The torture scenes are graphic, but not as bad as I thought they'd be - they aren't relentless and overdone, but have just the right piquant tastes of grotesque and terror. The scene with the kid pleading for his life in German was very effective - thought maybe i should pick up some German for situations like these. as for the other commentators complaining that the characters were jerks - that's actually part of what makes this movie so good - Usually it's the nice, earnest, innocent hero/heroine goes through hell but always makes it out alive - being rewarded by fate or god or whatever for being good. but here the nice(st) fellow of the three bites it, in a bad way, leaving us to think we've got no one to root for. left with the jackass, we're forced us shift our alligence to a less likable hero - that is unless you're rooting for the torturers. Nice twist really. --SPOILER -- What really did it for me and probably why i give this movie such a high rating are the revenge scenes. In most movies, our beleaguered hero/heroine escapes, we have the one last scare and the hero/heroine kills the bad thing and then we all go home. But we all kinda feel hollow, like the bad thing's death just wasn't enough to make up for all the crap our hero/heroine had to go through. Here, in Hostel- the last 10 mins outta nowhere change from horror into a revenge film and it's quite satisfying, like a big ole bacon cheeseburger. Everyone that brought our characters to their lowly states gets it and gets it good. I wish I had a pack of wild orphaned gypsy children to do my bidding for bubble gum.