The first was somewhat definitive of an era and mark of a change in horror movies, the second was a poor clone of the first with the genders switched, the third is just a freakin' joke.
Horror contemporary Eli Roth, creator of the riotous Cabin Fever, brought us Hostel in 2005, as a half softcore porn, half guts'n'gore slasher which took explicit violence to a new level at the time. Despite the obvious 'exploitation,' it was quite bravely made and with quite decent technique.
And then, 6 years later, here we are with the straight-to-DVD addition to the gruelling series: Hostel Part III. Emaciated from Roth-deficiency, this chapter dives straight in with a bunch of typical idiots, on a typical idiot stag party, with one moderately good-hearted Groom, one disgusting, cheating little sex pest, and a bunch of other guys to fill in the gaps. They all have names, but who cares? That's incidental. These generic men are just pawns in the generic horror flick that is Hostel Part III.
Out of Europe all together, the movie is set in Las Vegas, with the idiots instantly trusting the most obviously wrong kind of people, allowing a dodgy silent cabby, whose meter is broken, to drive them to the middle of goddamn nowhere, where there is obviously a party going on, and inevitably get taken out by the same crew of rich freaks who pay to kill strangers in James Bond-style cocktail lounges that we remember from Parts 1 and 2.
It took me a while to decide whether to make this a regular, but low-rated review, or a Bad Movies Marathon entry, as there were traces of decent work. There were one or two examples of interesting camerawork, and there were one or two examples of doing the exact opposite of what you expected. But in the long run, these things didn't matter, nor did much else. The aforementioned dodgy cabby is given a lengthy introduction and involvement, but it never comes to anything: he is never mentioned again. The fate of the vanished girlfriend of one long-time prisoner is never revealed either, despite her always being brought up.
I also have a serious bone to pick with the way the writers cop out when it comes to the actual horror. So, the creepy little sex pest gets done in pretty well, but then the first pretty girl, complete with cheerleader outfit, is put on a table with a few dozen cockroaches. Her actual death comes from her ridiculous screaming, allowing the bugs to crawl down her throat and suffocate her. Laughable. This sequence was more like a gag reel from I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.
Similarly, when the Groom is inevitably the last man standing versus the bad guy, there is copious "You sick motherfucker!" followed by duelling with various butcher's knives, and finally they resort to several good old fashioned punch-ups. And all of this terrible, predictable action is punctuated by horrific CGI where it's not needed.
Serials, especially the horror ones, are getting old. There is rarely a sequel better than its predecessor, and they usually screw up everything that was once so great about the original. Here we have a nice example. What Eli Roth created as a shocking, but refreshing slasher movie has been reduced to cheap tack, shoddy writing and being known as "one of those shitty series." It's a shame.
Rating: 4/5
I'll start off like a headline cliche, and beg your forgiveness, but it seems appropriate to this particular picture. The Help is a moving, funny and heart-wrenching film. I cringe at these sorts of descriptions usually, but The Help uses these emotions so effectively, and quite evenly, that it's worth mentioning each.
Reminding me a little of Spielberg's beautiful The Color Purple, based on Alice Walker's fantastic novel, this movie is based on Kathryn Stockett's book, which is rather popular. In Jackson, Mississippi in the early '60s, every white child is raised lovingly by their family's black maid, while every white parent allows the maids to handle their children, but not to use their bathroom. Racial tensions are high, and subject to many discriminatory laws, and the black women suffer abuse at the hands of their snooty employers.
Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone) returns home to Jackson having graduated from college, and sets about her career as a writer: her first job is answering domestic questions in the local newspaper. She asks her friends' maids to help her write the articles, and they volunteer copious household tips. But at home, Skeeter's beloved family maid Constantine has left mysteriously, and her stubborn mother (Alison Janney) won't give her a straight answer, returning her attention to the wonderful women in town raising white children.
She befriends two inspirational women, Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) and Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and as they share tales of their lives as domestics for white people, Skeeter sees potential for not only a compelling book, but for a chance to change the narrow minds of the infuriating people who surround her.
It could be argued that Minny, Aibileen and Skeeter are all leading roles: each woman has her own story, with the makers actually giving them an equal share of the screen time. Emma Stone is pleasant to watch, but the show is stolen, melted down and made into gold by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.
Minny- headstrong and zero-tolerance- is fired by the local butter-wouldn't-melt-bitch Hilly Holbrook for using the indoor whites-only bathroom during a hurricane. With a thoroughly damaged reputation by the time Hilly is finished with her, Minny is hired by the only other nice (and therefore despised) woman in town, Celia Foote, to whom she passes her housekeeping tips, and her most fragrant recipes, all passed off as Celia's own work by the time her husband gets home. Spencer creates a delightful character, bringing the majority of the film's comic material to life, while embodying a woman who has seen it all and done it all.
The beautiful Aibileen is so tender and loving, yet maternally firm, having seen seasons of white children she loved grow into their cruel parents, despite everything. She has a tragic past, and needs the children she cares for to reignite her passion for life. Davis and Spencer make the movie what it is. Both received Oscar nominations, Spencer winning Best Supporting Actress, and both deliver charming, engaging, emotional performances in easily one of the best films of 2011.
So, there is the moving: the growing sisterhood between the women in Jackson; the funny: the hideously hilarious comeuppance of Hilly...and her mother's reaction; and the heart-wrenching: Aibileen's final sorrow as she is forced away from her beloved white child. The Help is a wonderful, emotional experience, which uplifts as it saddens, and tickles the funnybones as it yanks the heartstrings.
Rating: 4.5/5
The likes of Tom Six and Eli Roth seem to have brought around the idea that to make a disturbing movie, you have to take violence and sadism to an over-extreme level, in order to shock the audience. Gone also is the idea of a violent movie being of any category other than Horror.
David Lynch's twisted classic Blue Velvet proves, rather like Silence of the Lambs (1990) went on to, that the human mind, and all its conceptions, can provide all the trauma a well-made movie needs, but it depends on the best of acting and film making techniques.
Over 25 years since its release, Blue Velvet has not only gone on to gain recognition as one of the best films ever made, but has been thoroughly analysed in terms of psychology, symbolism and meaning, by many people in various fields. Lynch's 'neo-noir' approach and use of surrealism carry his deeply psychological story, paralleling Lumberton, your typical small-town that strikes me as a cross between Eastwick and Amity, and the sick, seedy underworld it invisbly inhabits.
Chipper young Kyle MacLachlan stars as Jeffrey Beaumont, the good-kid hero, home from school while his father is in the hospital. While walking through a nearby field, he discovers a severed human ear, which he rather casually places in a paper bag, and takes to Detective Williams at the police station. He's reunited with the detective's daughter Sandy (Laura Dern) with whom he went to school, and she offers him pieces of overheard information about the ear to satisfy his burning curiosity. These little clues lead him to sneaking into the apartment of battered nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) to investigate.
While there, the strangest of exchanges takes place. Dorothy comes home unexpectedly, causing Jeffrey to hide in a louvred closet with which he becomes well accustomed by the end of the movie. She soon finds him, and holds him at knifepoint, but finds him beautifully fascinating, and there is an instant strange attraction between them. He is soon thrust back into the closet when the key figure in the whole 'ear case' shows up at the apartment, and Jeffrey is forced upon the answers he so naively sought.
It is in these harrowing scenes that a wonderful level of realism is used. Despite Rossellini being a model, Dorothy's undressed frame is tragic. Her breasts and stomach droop a little, her bouffant wig is thrown to the floor, her underwear is simple, unflattering black. She's far from the sexualised victim in a lot of movies, who, despite her ordeal, looks perfect in lacy lingerie, but the real exploitation comes from Frank Booth, who has kidnapped her husband and son, and is using her as a sexual slave. It's a terrifying, courageous performance by Isabella Rossellini, who embodies a woman broken from the outside in.
I imagine all those fortunate enough to have never witnessed anything like what Jeffrey does will be overcome by MacLachlan's crackling emotions, as his innocent mind is overcome by the cruelty and evil he has discovered. As the audience are, he is truly shocked at what lurks in the underworld of his sweet little town, and how incorrigible the villain (Dennis Hopper) is. Having formerly seen him mainly in suave, smart-ass roles, the depth and engagement in MacLachlan's performance is surprising and stunning to me. Jeffrey echoes the audience's emotions of frustration, bewilderment and trauma.
Many actors and actresses rejected various roles in this picture because of its violent sexual content, and it's easy to see why they didn't see it as a risk they were willing to take. The movie depicts despair and evil in their rawest, and most realistic forms, and even the 'happy ending' does little to comfort our depressed souls. Blue Velvet was on my mind for days after I watched it, its presence really stayed with me. But somehow, it's a movie I'm glad I watched, and know I will watch again at some point. The quality of its overall effect is so overwhelming, it's so wonderfully made, that I can't help but watch it in awe.
