Has pretensions to be one of the nastiest movies ever seen but for me it was just one of the most boring

Rating: 3/10 (18 April 2006)

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits
A couple of obnoxious young Americans and a pal they met on their journey take a trip to Amsterdam, Holland to enjoy a no holds barred holiday of casual sex and pot smoking. However, things take an unexpected turn when members of their number start mysteriously disappearing. It turns out there is another pleasure the boys haven't sampled- a pleasure where they'll suffer the most extreme pain and torture they've ever known from which they may well not leave alive.
Touted as one of the most gruesome films ever made, Hostel proudly boasted a blood-splattered publicity campaign with a grisly promotional poster and that master of all things violent Quentin Tarantino billed as the executive producer. I've already seen some extremely nasty films this year, in the shape of Running Scared and The Devil's Rejects. Although Hostel is not as consistently nasty as those films there are a handful of scenes that definitely won't work wonders for the faint-hearted. But for the most part this just struck me as one of the most boring films I've seen in quite a while.
If you still feel the need to slow down and peer in the car wreck yourself, you'll have to let yourself in for an unbelievably boring first half where absolutely nothing seems to happen, some unlikeable central characters and, of course, the unpleasant blood-splattered scenes. It might help if you try to see it as an examination of the dark side that could result in Amsterdam's culture of indulgence, but if you tune in for shock value, if you're like me, you'll most likely just end up falling asleep. **