Turistas (Unrated Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Turistas (Unrated Edition)
Movie Review: A horror movie that goes out of its way to target my worst nightmares
Summary: 4 Stars
I am very much aware that there are several personal factors at work when it comes to reviewing "Turistas." First, this is my ninth horror film in nine days having just gone through the 8 files 2 die 4 that made up the 2007 edition of After Dark Horrorfest, and having not been overly impressed by any of those films I am not surprised that this one looks great in comparision. Second, when I took Health in high school they showed us an educational film to convince us that smoking was a bad think which consisted of not just the traditional film of doctors cutting out a cancer ravaged lung but the beginning of the operation where they make the initial incision and then crack the chest open. Believe me when I tell you that it was all the stuff before they got to ripping out that guy's rotten lung that had us ready to lose our breakfast (gym class was before lunch). Third, my daughter headed off to Costa Rica last month to serve in the Peace Corps for the next couple of years, so the fact that I keep reading books (Kathy Reichs' "Grave Secrets") or seeing movies ("Borderland") in which horrible things happen to young women in one of our Latin American neighbors is really starting to creep me out.
A bunch of turistas are on a bus going too fast on a roadway somewhere in Brazil. When they find themselves suddenly off of the bus, a group of them decide to see if they can find a party instead of another bus. We have Alex (Josh Duhamel), who is vacationing with his sister, Bea (Olivia Wilde), and her free-spirited friend, Amy (Beau Garrett). Then there is Pru (Melissa George), visiting from Australia, and a couple of English blokes, Finn (Desmond Askew) and Liam (Max Brown), who help make Alex look like the good guy that he is. Along with some others the group indeed finds themselves a party, but this turns out to be bad news rather than good news by the time the sun comes up the next morning. Then things good from pretty bad to infinitely worse.
The scene that first caught my attention in this 2006 film was the one with the first deaths, mainly because they were so quick and simple. Horror movies tend to wallow on the death scenes these days, and certainly "Turistas" has one of the more protracted killings as its centerpiece, Besides, there is an implicit lessons in those initial deaths, because killing is not the goal here, just a natural (so to speak) byproduct of the goal. As for the scene that is supposed to get you, well, it really got me because to my way of thinking it was something that could really happen (plus I think regardless of the context what we are seeing taps into a basic human fear or two). My main complaint with the film is a constant one as a fan of horror films, which is that I did not find the end game to be as strong as the set up. Granted, very few horror films have endings as good as their set ups, but we would still like to hold out hope that things will work out that way.
As for the "Turistas" vs. "Hostel" debate, it seems to be to be apples and oranges. Although they are both are young people traveling in foreign lands and having horrible things happen to them, "Hostel" is quintessential torture porn and I do not see "Turistas" as being in that contemporary sub-genre of horror films. Besides, I thought the element that worked best in "Hostel" was not the graphic violence and dismemberment but the whole "what the hell is going on here?" bit. In the traditional splatter flick (e.g., "Halloween") the audience is usually aware of the backstory that explains the killer's motivation, while the victims are usually left in the dark. In "Hostel" we do not have a clue (which is why the sequel had to go in a different direction given that the audience cannot be surprised twice). Both stories are sort of predicated on urban legends (if something happening in a Brazillian jungle can be said to fall into that category), so each may be equally ludicrous judged in the light of day, but what happens in "Turistas" strikes me as something that human beings have really done to each other much more so than anything that happens in the factory in "Hostel."
Final Note (contains what is technically a minor spoiler): I am getting really tired of the naked girl always having to die in horror films as a punishment for her sexuality, even when this commonplace practice is given a sick twist like it is in "Turistas." I know that "Scream" provided a twist on the virgin always being the one to survive in a horror film, but I am ready for somebody to make a film where the naked girl is the sole survivor at the end (no, "Planet Terror" does not count, and, yes, I know that such a film with inevitably show the naked girl totally covered in blood and gore).
Movie Review: I left my Heart in San Francisco...as for my Guts, Liver, & Brain, I left them in Brazil
Summary: 4 Stars
SHORT REVIEW, for those with limited BS-tolerance or ADD: "Turistas" puts a new spin the old slogan "Yankee go Home". This time, it's "Yankee go home, but leave your brains, guts, Liver, & Pancreas behind, por favor." Great flick, lots of blood & goop, ample tension, + bikinis. What's not to love?
LONG REVIEW, for those with too much TIME ON THEIR HANDS: Once upon a time Karl Marx, bearded great-granddaddy of really soaking the Rich, commented that the good society was one in which scarce resources were allocated "from each according to his Ability, to each according to his need".
Now, old-time Marxists---mostly your college professors and 30-something video-store clerks with English degrees, if you're wondering where they are---think that Marx was just groovy. Just right on, man. Everyone being equal, which is a great idea, you know, so that no matter how hard you work and slave & toil, you can rest in peace & comfort knowing that your slacker buddy who spends his days frying the hash (if you know what I mean) & watching reruns of "Full House"---well, you two will always be making the same amount of jingle jangle.
Now, when you point out the obvious to these guys---you know, that Communism didn't work, resulted in the deaths of tens of millions and the economic derangement & impoverishment of Eastern Europe and Soviet Russia---these guys say "well that's because true Marxism has never been tried".
I've got news for those guys: it *has* been tried! And it works, baby, as "Turistas" cleverly demonstrates.
Unlike 'Hostel', which got down in the gutter with a bunch of filthy capitalist pig-dogs who wanted to go hunting humans, "Turistas" offers more uplifting fare: a Brazilian Dr. Zamora (played to fine "get them thar gringos" aplomb by Miguel Lunardi), who, outraged over seeing poor young Brazilians get chopped up for body parts which heal rich Anglos (I should know, man: I'm waiting for some Brazilian's brain!), decides to take the Power back! Or if not taking the Power, at least taking the aforementioned guts, liver, pancreas, brain, & so forth.
Hey, at least the organs will do *somebody* some good: all these kids are gonna do with 'em otherwise is drink 'em up on Spring Break. Dr. Zamora *has* seen "The Real Cancun", you know.
Best thing about "Turistas", other than the string bikinis and guttage: the villains. You've got to be able to boast some nasties, and "Turistas" does: Dr. Zamora is a real baddy. You know that, because not only does he lecture some kid about seizing the day over his afternoon frappucino, he also whacks some talky underling. Over Frappucino. Now *that* is a bad dude.
Anyway, flip over to the kids: their bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and faster than you can say "I'd have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for you meddling kids", Dr. Zamora is on the scene. Or something like that.
It's all good. Director John Stockwell has a handle on sand, sun, surf, & little nubile hardbodies in thongkinis: he has helmed up chick surfer flicks "Blue Crush" & "Into the Blue". Evidently he wanted to get a little more beneat the tan line, and here he succeeds in spades. The dissection sequence in the hut is one of the more barf-inducing in recent memory, and brought to mind the old song "I've got a lovely pair of Coconuts". Good times!
Plus you've got all sorts of assorted coolness: killer villagers, nasty kids, rainswept jungle, helicopters swooping down CHOPPA-CHOPPA-CHOPPA in inky black darkness seconds after a particularly disturbing revelation, chop suey with guts in the operating room, involuntary organ donors, big ol' blood spatters, and a little manhunt with a crossbow. I don't know about you, but throw in some flashy camera-work and you've made a beachbum with a penchant for body parts outta me.
Pass the tanning oil.
JSG
Movie Review: Like Hostel, But Better
Summary: 4 Stars
Among the better movies from the recent batch of extreme/torture horror, it's a shame that Turistas is probably destined forever to live in the shadows of the "Hostel" series, because it's significantly better than either installment that Hostel has yet produced. Following an unmistakably similar plot as the first "Hostel" - although I think both movies started production at about the same time and this one just took longer to finish - "Turistas" finds (as does its better-known peer) a group of vacationers travelling to an exotic hot spot (in this case Brazil) for a fun-filled getaway, only to run afoul of a local group of brutal, torture-minded psychopaths. The main differences are, I guess, rather subjective. Personally, I thought Turistas was scarier and sexier than Hostel, and had more likable protagonists and more interesting villains. In the first half, there's little overtly horror movie-ish about the film: the main group is prevented from going to their upper-scale tourist destination because of a bus mishap, and ends up at a more off-the-main-path destination, a small village by the beach without the big hotels from tourist brochures, but with festive, smaller-scale, attractions - open air beach bars, big evening bonfire parties, all that kind of thing. They end up making friends with some fellow travellers and with the locals, but some of those locals have a keen interest in the newcomers that doesn't seem to be on the up and up. Come the next day, the vacationers find they've been robbed and the village starts to seem less than friendly, so, with the help of a local they've befriended, head off towards less threatening envirorns, travelling through a swath of rainforest on what turns out to be a very ill-fated trek. The sexy, fun-natured and sometimes humorous angles of the early parts end up meshing very well (and better than what might be expected) with the dark, deeply intense nature of the movie's second half.
Having established its tourist characters as actually likable and interesting, "Turistas" also brings up the level of its bad guys a bit more than a number of similar movies have done. The ringleader of the group, while certainly not rising to the level of a character like Jigsaw, is well-crafted and believable, a highly intelligent but unflichingly sadistic mastermind. For his accomplices, he's surrounded himself not only with like-minded psychopaths, but a few less obvious choices: desperate, confused and often embittered characters, who he's recruited by not only presenting to them the only feasible means out of their own destitution, but by being a smooth, manipulative talker who can paint even horrible acts (such as his 'organ-harvesting' operation) as being somehow justified. The prescence of these 'reluctant villains', and of the element of the evil charmer who's skilled enough to make people act in ways they'd normally never even consider, are both welcome angles.
With the movie developing into some intense battles, it's in ways like an action movie that's presented as a horror movie. It manages some genuine scares, and hits psychological horror notes as well as gory, visceral horror notes. Well acted and well directed, with impressive camerwork, especially in the underwater sequences. The movie utilizes a kind of unique use of lighting, and sometimes color, to create an effect that really captures the atmosphere and heat, making certain daytime scenes feel like they're drenched in hot sunlight.
"Turistas" is a fine addition to the pantheon of horror movies, and shouldn't be overlooked just because of its similarities to other movies, although the torturous nature of the organ-harvesters means that it's not for everybody. It is a reminder though, that just because a movie isn't exactly reinventing the wheel in terms of storyline, it can still be a great movie.
Movie Review: Surprisingly good.
Summary: 4 Stars
Turistas (John Stockwell, 2007)
I think Turistas may hold the record for speed of a theatrical release making it to DVD; I was watching it at home less than three months after it came out in the theaters. And while I have to say I understand why it redefined the term "box-office disaster," it's not nearly as bad a film as I was expecting it to be. Much of the problem, both with my expectations and (I suspect) the turnout at the cinema, had to do with the press' endless comparisons between this film and Hostel, comparisons which are about as warranted as those between, say, My Fair Lady and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Yes, there's the same mix of sex and violence, but in nowhere near the same ratio (nor amount) to be found in the wonderful world of Eli Roth. I'd have a hard time believing that Stockwell had to do anywhere near as much cutting to get his R as Roth did.
Stockwell (Nixon) opens his film with three characters on a Brazilian vacation--Alex (Las Vegas' Josh Duhamel), his sister Bea (Alpha Dog's Olivia Wilde), and her friend Amy (Guess model Beau Garrett). A combination of inattention and aggression in the bus driver causes an accident, and the three of them, along with some newfound friends--Pru (Melissa George, recently of The Amityville Horror), an Australian, and London brothers Finn (The Hills Have Eyes' Desmond Askew) and Liam (TV actor Max Brown)--find what seems to be paradise just down the hill, a white sandy beach with a bar run by beautiful, mysterious Camila (Brazilian actress Andrea Leal, in her first major American appearance). The six of them hook up with Svend (Gustav Roth) and his girlfriend Annika (Olga Diegues), who have been staying there for the past three days, and the group is set. Oh, except for the token native, Kiko (Agles Steib), a Brazilian who's been studying English, but hasn't had any native speakers on which to test his skills. As with all paradises, you know things are about to go bad quickly. They do.
Where Hostel seemed to me to be far less about plot and more about how much Roth could get away with within the Hollywood machine (rather like Wes Craven's Last House on the Left thirty-plus years previous), Turistas imposes a plot, interesting characters, etc. on the formula (continuing the parallel, think, say, Men Behind the Sun). For the most part, I think, Stockwell quite succeeds, but the trade-off is that the gorehound crowd get not nearly as much of what they're looking for, while the plot-and-character crowd will find their stomachs turned by what little gore there is (there's really not enough nudity to cause anyone to squirm, and what there is is, with the exception of one comedic scene, presented in the least sexy way possible; Stockwell was not out to titillate here). Thus, like so many neglected movies, the main problem with Turistas is not really a problem at all: it's just a movie that no one knows how to categorize, and thus how to market, and the audience who would've found it enjoyable were too busy dismissing it as either too gory or not gory enough.
If you didn't catch it the first time round, and you almost certainly didn't, it's worth a rental, if you're into that sort of thing. *** ½
Movie Review: American tourists are the new screaming women falling down in the woods
Summary: 4 Stars
There are a few things every person traveling abroad must know. One, don't drink the water. Two, have your passport on you at all times. Three, airport baggage handlers will either lose your baggage or destroy it. Four, don't accept a drink from a stranger. Five, update all vaccinations. And, six, the most important rule, that's NOT a woman. In Turistas, one unfortunate group of aimless pleasure-seekers definitely learns all but the most important lesson (maybe even them all).
When a group of likeable, sexy American tourists make their way to Brazil, they quickly see how enticing the country can be. The beaches, the drinks, the women: all beautiful and exciting. When their bus rolls down a hill leaving them stranded, they choose to stay for a while, partying it up with the amiable locals. Bad news; a few of their new friends are psychotic murderers complicit in an extravagant organ-harvesting scheme. Nothing scary yet - who really needs BOTH kidneys?
Well acted, well directed, a good amount of creative gore, tense thrills, and a few good boob shots...what else is a horror movie supposed to deliver? For a fairly convincing and effective albeit fairly unoriginal horror movie, it's quite a terrifying concept and delivery. However, there are two infuriating aspects to Turistas.
First, the message of American ignorance and disrespect is rendered completely pointless when considering the fact that those portrayed as open-minded about traveling are evidently meat-sacks with organs to be snagged whenever someone rich requires a transplant. The other frustrating part is that cinematography is brilliant. It's gorgeous, showing amazing shots of overflowing jungles, exquisite waterfalls, and the underwater caving scenes' translucent blues are simply unparalleled. Meanwhile, it's almost a PSA for American xenophobia. Why travel if the American tourist is considered a ripe for the picking organ grab bag?
Many will simply write-off Turistas as an unoriginal Hostel clone, but I enjoyed the cross-blending of sadistic, exploitation horror and visceral torture-porn.