I'm 45, married with two teenage girls. Originally from Newcastle, now in Kent but still passionate ...
I'm 45, married with two teenage girls. Originally from Newcastle, now in Kent but still passionate Newcastle fan.
Member since:23.01.2001
Reviews:101
Members who trust:28
The factual bits:
This is NOT a Quentin Tarantino film - it's actually written and directed by Eli Roth, who contributed to the writing, directing and appeared in Cabin Fever (2002). It's 'presented' by Tarantino - not sure what this actually means but at a guess, he probably helped raise funding and to get his cut, agreed to put this name to it (or is that too cynical?).
The DVD comes with a directors commentary, directors and executive producers' commentary, directors and producers commentary and a director and guests commentary. Now, to me all of this commentary seems more like an attempt to pad out the DVD.
Also on the DV are 'Hostel Dissected - a behind-the-scenes Featurette (i.e. it's short) and 'Kill the Car! a multi-angle Interactive Feature (great fun...for all of 5 minutes!)
The film itself comes in at a measly 1 hr 30mins, although I'm not sure many people could take much longer - not because it lives up to the quotes on the DVD - 'You'll laugh, You'll scream, You might even puke' and 'A disgusting film - but in a good way' but because it is actually so poor.
Okay, let's look at the film itself. Being a great Tarantino fan, I just had to get this DVD. Having been unable to make it to the cinema to see this, I awaited the DVD release with bated breath and hotfooted it home with said DVD clasped in my sweaty little mitts.
The plot, such as it is, is perhaps the weakest part of this film. 2 young American youths are on a backpacking tour of (predominantly) Eastern Europe. They hear whispers of an exclusive hostel in Slovakia and decide to make their way there. On arrival, they find it populated only by standard American movie babes, not an average looking girl (no bad hair, crooked teeth, acne, an ounce of fat or cellulite) in sight!
Believing all their birthdays and Christmases have come at once, they immediately throw themselves into 'making friends' with the very welcoming girls, which basically entais lots of sex and visits to bizarre bars and clubs. During one of these visits, the random Icelandic backpacker with whom they have hooked up with vanishes - shades of 'Don't Look Now' when glimpses of the vanishing Icelander are caught around town.
An early encounter on the train with a suspect geriatric gentleman who likes to touch young boys knees (amongst more bloodthirsty pecadilloes which become apparent later on in the film) comes back to haunt the boys when it becomes obvious that the girls are merely bait, and are being paid to procure young tourists to participate (unwillingly) in a sort of 'SAGA meets the Marquis De Sade' package holiday for rich Europeans whose idea of fun is to dismember and otherwise torture young Americans (having been introduced to the main characters 'personalities', I have a degree of sympathy for these tourists from hell!). The torture and mutilation scenes veer from fairly gruesome to laughable and it's difficult to tell if this is intentional. They are well done but, perhaps in tribute to Tarantino, they verge in the comic book style.
The last few minutes of this film turn involves our heroes revenge on the bloodthirsty geriatrics and those who organise the 'participants'. A not particularly satisfying ending leaves the door open for a sequel on which work has already been begun, the imaginatively named Hostel 2.
Perhaps the fact that I found the two main characters wooden, thoroughly unlikeable and quite honestly, difficult to empathise or even sympathise with, contributed to my disappointment with this film? Perhaps the dismal soundtrack was to blame? Perhaps it was the fact that I expected better from something to which Quentin Tarantino put his name?
Okay, it's actually a combination all of these. Worth a watch if only to say you've seen it!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1984 - Horror - Director: Joe Dante - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday, Frances Lee McCain, Judge Reinhold, Corey Feldman
Production Year: 2002 - Horror - Director: Danny Boyle - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Cillian Murphy, Megan Burns, Noah Huntley, Christopher Eccleston, Marvin Campbell, Brendan Gleeson
excessive-skin-displayed-before-gruesome-bloody-to rture-begins genre--Hostelfollows two randy Americans (Jay Hernandez,Friday Night Lights, and Derek Richardson,Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd) and an even randier I...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
excessive-skin-displayed-before-gruesome-bloody-to rture-begins genre--Hostelfollows two randy Americans (Jay Hernandez,Friday Night Lights, and Derek Richardson,Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd) and an even randier I...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
A trio of teenagers two American one Icelandic backpack around Europe looking for a ... more
good time. While in Amsterdam they are told of a youth hostel in Slovakia where all their wildest dreams will come true. Jumping onto the first train there the thr...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: Violence, some gore, basically it's a European slasher film Disadvantages: Poor acting, weak plotline (though it's not really a major factor in this case)
![Quentin Tarantino Presents : Hostel [2005] [DVD] [2006]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78487819.jpg "Quentin Tarantino Presents : Hostel [2005] [DVD] [2006]")
Oct 8th, 2006
very helpful by (81%):
helpful by (19%):
