Scan and Pan
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Hostel: Part II
In the first film, three male tourists in Slovakia are abducted by a shadowy group that auctions people off to be tortured and killed for the pleasure of wealthy patrons. This time the main characters are three female American students in Italy: wealthy lesbian Beth (Lauren German), party girl Whitney (Bijou Phillips), and bookish Lorna (Heather Matarazzo). They meet model Axelle (Vera Jordanova) in an art class and then again while traveling by train to Prague. Axelle tells them she's going to a spa in Slovakia and invites them to come with her. They accept her offer, and that's when thing start to go really wrong for them.
Roth's first two films, Cabin Fever and Hostel, were fresh contributions to the horror genre, and the latter film was good because it turned genre cliches on their head. Its sequel, on the other hand, is predictable to the point of boredom. The central concept doesn't work nearly as well with women as the victims because that's the oldest horror cliche of them all, and Roth can't find anything new to do with it. Horror films are the most successful when the monsters, whether supernatural or human, retain some element of mystery. Explain too much, and they lose their power. Here, we learn too much about the group behind the torture factory and their clients, and mysterious turns banal. It doesn't even succeed as a gore film because the violence is far too tame. With one exception, it's routine rather than extreme.
The protagonists in the first film may not have been three dimensional, but they were often vivid and interesting (like Óli). Not so this time. Some critics have suggested that Roth isn't as good at writing female characters, but the male characters are even more poorly conceived here. The two American businessmen who want to experience the thrill of torturing and killing a human being are absurd, even more so when the personality of one of them abruptly changes. Roth's characteristic dark humor plays out as flat and uninspired this time, except for the nicely twisted soccer scene at the end.
The cast is generally solid enough, with German, Phillips, and Matarazzo making more of their characters than the script gives them to work with. Jordanova is charming and seductive as Axelle, while Milan Knazko is chillingly restrained as the leader of the shadowy group. Richard Burgi and Roger Bart play the American businessmen, but they're not up to the task of salvaging their characters. Jay Hernandez returns as the only survivor from the first film and Patrik Zigo is once again spot on as the leader of a group of feral children known as the Bubblegum Gang.
Hostel: Part II displays a lack of originality and to all appearances is simply a cynical attempt to cash in on the success of the first film without putting any effort into it, which is not what one has come to expect from either Tarantino or Roth.
[2 out of 5 stars]
Executive producer Quentin Tarantino and writer/director Eli Roth serve up a disappointing sequel to last year's surprise horror hit.
In the first film, three male tourists in Slovakia are abducted by a shadowy group that auctions people off to be tortured and killed for the pleasure of wealthy patrons. This time the main characters are three female American students in Italy: wealthy lesbian Beth (Lauren German), party girl Whitney (Bijou Phillips), and bookish Lorna (Heather Matarazzo). They meet model Axelle (Vera Jordanova) in an art class and then again while traveling by train to Prague. Axelle tells them she's going to a spa in Slovakia and invites them to come with her. They accept her offer, and that's when thing start to go really wrong for them.
Roth's first two films, Cabin Fever and Hostel, were fresh contributions to the horror genre, and the latter film was good because it turned genre cliches on their head. Its sequel, on the other hand, is predictable to the point of boredom. The central concept doesn't work nearly as well with women as the victims because that's the oldest horror cliche of them all, and Roth can't find anything new to do with it. Horror films are the most successful when the monsters, whether supernatural or human, retain some element of mystery. Explain too much, and they lose their power. Here, we learn too much about the group behind the torture factory and their clients, and mysterious turns banal. It doesn't even succeed as a gore film because the violence is far too tame. With one exception, it's routine rather than extreme.
The protagonists in the first film may not have been three dimensional, but they were often vivid and interesting (like Óli). Not so this time. Some critics have suggested that Roth isn't as good at writing female characters, but the male characters are even more poorly conceived here. The two American businessmen who want to experience the thrill of torturing and killing a human being are absurd, even more so when the personality of one of them abruptly changes. Roth's characteristic dark humor plays out as flat and uninspired this time, except for the nicely twisted soccer scene at the end.
The cast is generally solid enough, with German, Phillips, and Matarazzo making more of their characters than the script gives them to work with. Jordanova is charming and seductive as Axelle, while Milan Knazko is chillingly restrained as the leader of the shadowy group. Richard Burgi and Roger Bart play the American businessmen, but they're not up to the task of salvaging their characters. Jay Hernandez returns as the only survivor from the first film and Patrik Zigo is once again spot on as the leader of a group of feral children known as the Bubblegum Gang.
Hostel: Part II displays a lack of originality and to all appearances is simply a cynical attempt to cash in on the success of the first film without putting any effort into it, which is not what one has come to expect from either Tarantino or Roth.
[2 out of 5 stars]
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