"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)

"Frontier(s)" DVD (director: Xavier Gens)

Under a shaky facade of political awareness and portending France's return to right-wing politics, sadistic French splatter-torture film "Frontier(s)" succeeds only in melding "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" with "Saw" or "Hostel". Sure, it's gritty, dirty, and absolutely packed with buckets of blood and hacked limbs, but the story feels awfully familiar. And the mid-film melodrama of a love confession is silly and totally unnecessary.

Set in modern-day France, a team of young Parisian thieves, while on the run to Amsterdam, aim to relax for a night in a roadside "hotel" and meet some lovely lasses who aren't shy about "tending their needs", and for free. Forward a bit (not a problem, as the sex scenes aren't very impressive) and our protagonists end up in an abandoned mine system in the middle of nowhere. They are pursued, tortured, and imprisoned by a former Nazi war criminal and his hackneyed "family", with an aim to create a "pure race". Blood, guts, torture, grime, chains, pigs, circular saws, a nasty Achilles-tendon snapping...you get all this. Too bad there's not much else here to recommend. (Lions Gate)