"Hostel" (Beware: Slight Spoilers)

[Halo_n_horns]

Well, maybe its because I was brought up on a steady diet of horror, gore and suspense thrillers, but I was left wanting. The story explained itself just fine, and the actors and twists, if you want to call the twists "twists," weren't horrible. But the torture scenes (which is what 99% of the viewers are going to the movie for) were far too short and rather unimaginative. The gore was even pretty standard stuff, and in one instance it wasn't very well done at all.

The most disturbing scene involved a group of children bashing in the heads of a couple of bad guys. It was disturbing because it was children doing it for the fun of doing it while two of them sat by and chewed the bubblegum they were bribed with.

If Tarantino had actually directed this rather than just producing it, I think this could have been one hell of a movie in all the right ways.

 

[cantdog]

I always feel so inadequate about cinematic discussions. I really don't get it, usually. To me, the interesting thing about films is the exposition of the story, just as it is in writing. I love, for example, "Da Vinci's Inquest." (That's a television series, for those who haven't seen it.) The writing is incredible. The actors get to improvise at least a little, too, and they make it all sound like real people uttering real speech. Or at least, real Canadian speech, which has a different flavor than American speech. But the filmic discussions really don't seem to be about exposition and story telling, but about esoterica. Sorry. Love Ed Norton. But still don't get it.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

I always feel so inadequate about cinematic discussions. I really don't get it, usually. To me, the interesting thing about films is the exposition of the story, just as it is in writing. I love, for example, "Da Vinci's Inquest." (That's a television series, for those who haven't seen it.) The writing is incredible. The actors get to improvise at least a little, too, and they make it all sound like real people uttering real speech. Or at least, real Canadian speech, which has a different flavor than American speech. But the filmic discussions really don't seem to be about exposition and story telling, but about esoterica. Sorry. Love Ed Norton. But still don't get it.

There's nothing to feel inadequate about from where I sit. Ya either liked something or ya didn't, and usually you have reasons as to why in either instance.

I'll admit that I don't always catch some of the complexities of a really well done movie. On a couple of occasions I did leave at the end of a movie going, "huh?"

But I'm a bit of a movie hog. I like'em, a lot. I typically try to have no expectations of what I'm about to see. I just want to take it in and see if its works for me or not. "Hostel" worked in a limited way for me. Like far too many movies these days, it just didn't take me all that far, if you know what I mean.