DVD
REVIEW: HOSTEL 2
(Director's Cut)
10/25/07
Looking back, Eli Roth’s
“Hostel” had its great success for being innovating,
entertaining, and creative. It was just common sense, at
least economically, to extend the idea to a sequel. The
problems with sequels is that everyone expects it to be
better that its predecessor. Well, Hostel Part II was
released in June 2007, and in my opinion, it does not
surpasses its predecessor, but at least matches it in
quality. Mr., Roth did a good job coming back with a movie
that although follows the same plot as the first one, it is
refreshing, exiting and fun. Forget about ghosts, zombies,
supernatural villains and vampires although movies with
these character are quite amusing, nowadays horror have
taken a different approach, Hostel part II follows this new
trend in horror films that have taken terror to a different
level by elaborating constructive methods of killing people.
Hostel Part II (Director’s Cut) will be released on October
23, 2007, in its DVD Format.
Hostel II starts off where the predecessor ended. On the
last Hostel movie Paxton (Jay Hernandez) survives the
torches of death by escaping, unfortunately for him, in this
movie his appearance is just to describe the reach of this
unscrupulous Organization. Then , we are taken to Rome where
there are three female college students who are planning to
catch the train to Prague. Lorna (Heather Matarazzo),
Whitney (Bijou Philips), & Beth (Lauren German) runs across
a mysterious woman on the train, who than convinces them to
switch trains and take it into Slovakia to enjoy a luxurious
spy. However, the spa is located next to the favorite hostel
hotel. While the trio check into their rooms they are
greeted with the friendly staff and get invited to a party.
Little do they know they are sending messages to rich and
successful people, who are paying thousands of dollars, to
torture and kill them one by one. The highest bidder was an
American man name Todd (Richard Burgi) , the usual
adrenaline junkie, who brought along his friend Stuart
(Roger Bart), the typical friend, to Slovakia to
sadistically torture the protagonist students.
Eli Roth makes an excellent job with the camera to show us
how these two stories, the killers and the victims, merge
together. Also he takes an step further, by explaining and
showing us the organizations’ power, which seem to have a
sense of mysticism to it, a set of rules and rituals that
must be followed to belong. In Part II, Roth also goes into
the mind of different clients, to try to explain the reason
of their acts. all the scenes are well taken, and more
graphical with incredible special effects than its
predecessor. However, none of them disrupt the flow of the
movie, but some may disrupt your stomach. The film treats
the audience to different scenes of torture. Here Roth took
it to the extreme, some of them also look really artistic,
my personal favorite “Something to Write About.” was kind of
mystical. The film kind of fill your sense of excitement
while seeing people get decapitated and ripped alive but at
the same time it's not scary, the audience either hated or
love it. All Characters are well described. They all are
reality grounded and are every day people. Probably a major
downer is the three girls personalities, which are the usual
used in horror movies : the geek, The Sluttish, and the
normal one. The Settings of the film are also well depicted,
from the suburbs in America, the beautiful Rome to the poor
but also mysterious Slovakia. The sound is also very well
chosen and executed. A blind person will understand the
movie just by hearing it, the dialogs are well chosen and
simple.
Most of the cast do a good
job, they depict where they come from and make the audience
fell sympathy for them, however some of them tend to overdue
it a little like Matarazzo (Lorna) who try to hard to be
gawky or Whitney. The Little gang of kids from Slovakia did
a great job portraying the lower class, but I think they
should have shown more feeling in a particular scene (Not
the Last One) since over all they are still kids. Richard
Burgi makes a good depiction of the All talk Alpha male.
The writer-director Eli Roth, to his knowledge, possesses a
mind sicker than any contemporary filmmaker, including the
executive-producer Quentin Tarantino. He does frighten us an
inch and disturb us a mile. Since the movie is based on a
reality as close as the one we live in, it would leave the
audience what a sense of what if is real? He's got a
prolific imagination and the results are unlike anything you
have ever seen. Part II is well written, better acted,
bloodier. With the last 20 minutes being pure FUN with a
good turn of events at the end. I don’t know if it is better
that the original but there is no doubt that it is a most
have for fans of the series and every horror fan’s movie
collection.
VIDEO:
2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
AUDIO:
English
5.1 (Dobly Digital) French (Dolby Surround).
Subtitles - English Spanish
French - Optional
BONUS FEATURES:
This DVD is valuable for the movie, since
the special features are not anything to be amazed. I think
that little thought , or none, were put in this area.
Deleted Scenes : A total of
ten deleted scenes that were well erased from the movie
since they do not enhance the movie.
Commentary with Director Eli Roth,
Executive Producer Quentin Tarantino and Associate Producer
Gabriel Roth : if you like to hear the
explanations from the people.
Commentary with Director Eli Roth
Hostel Part Two The Next Level:
It will tell you how the movie was filmed and what the
director want to show (27 Min)
The Art Of KNB Effects : It
tells you how the Special Effect were done during the movie.
(6 min)
Production Design: Over 6
minutes of how the Main Settings were set up. (6Min)
Hostel Part II A Legacy Of Torture:
A more deeper analysis of the idea of hostel and torture
around history by far the best featurette ( 25 Min)
The Treatment Radio Interview:
Again a 27 minute radio interview with director Eli Roth
about the release of Hostel and the ideas Behind it. (27
Min)
Blood and Guts Gag Reel: Just some
outtakes that are not funny.
RATING BREAK DOWN:
| FILM REVIEW |
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VIDEO |
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AUDIO |
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| BONUS
FEATURES |
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Review
By Milo
milo@smartcine.com
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