"Hostel Part III" DVD (director: Scott Spiegel)

I admit (though a bit shamefully somehow) to enjoying "Hostel" (enough to buy a DVD), and even liking "Hostel 2" fairly well. This direct-to-video continuation, though, adds nothing to the story, only borrowing the idea and transplanting it to a new locale (Las Vegas), all the while missing the mark on gore, sexuality, and clever ideas. Eli Roth is no longer involved, either, so take that as you will.

Basically, after an initially playful and surprising opening scene (kudos to whoever was responsible for that), we get a rip-off of the first "Hostel" movies. A small group of young men are visiting Vegas for a bachelor party, where they mistakenly get involved in some seductive "party girls", who unwittingly get them all staked out as targets of the covert Elite Hunting Club, where privileged members get to place wagers on human lives. 

While not an altogether awful film, "Hostel Part III" lacks any sort of edge or angle to build upon the first 2 films in the franchise. In short, it's a shallow and unnecessary cash-in. Avoid, unless you've got too much time on your hands and are attached to the first 2 "Hostel" flicks.

(Sony Pictures)

Ruggero Deodato - "Cannibal Holocaust" DVD

This 1980 production is a legendary piece of grindhouse/exploitation and mondo cinema, and has noticeably inspired later-day film juggernauts like 'The Blair Witch Project', and certainly Eli Roth's explorations of taboos and sado-masochistic brutalism. Banned in many countries for years, this film is still a vile, repulsive, and shocking display of transgression and man's own inhumanity, greed, and brazen disrespect towards other cultures.

Featuring some pretty wooden acting, and amateurish 'home-video' filmwork, 'Cannibal Holocaust' is the tale of a group of young filmmakers who travel to the deepest, most unexplored rainforests of Brazil to document the primitive native tribes who are known to be cannibals. Well, their trip, seen through their own eyes (a film company is reviewing the reels for possible release) goes from bad to worse. The natives aren't so welcoming, and we are gradually led into understanding why.

'Cannibal Holocaust' is offensive in so many ways, and is certainly only for jaded gorehounds, and those with a strong stomach. Some would say (and they may not be wrong) that this film is little more than an excuse to parade out excessive amounts of violence and torture (the animal killings are real), plus a great deal of brutal sexual violence. This film blurs the lines between shocking reality and cinematic staging. It's not a 'Faces Of Death'-style documentary, but if you hate death scenes, this one's just not for you, period.

On a positive note, the bit of social commentary is good, as we see the true 'evil' isn't the natives at all, but the rude and disrespectful Americans, who actually, truth be told, deserve what they get. The indigenous tribes are depicted as primitives, but they never kill without reason. They are surviving the only way they know how.

A powerful film, but not an easy film. At all.

trailer (graphic)