Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Hostel (2005)
Director: Eli Roth
Movie review
From Time Out New York
One truly inspired moment from 2004's otherwise shite teen comedy EuroTrip has three American backpackers accidentally ending up in economically depressed Bratislava, where they are treated like kings. Their pathetic $1.83 buys them a lobster dinner and a massage; after catching a shiny nickel as a tip, one waiter turns to his maître d' and declares, "I quit! I open my own hotel!"Eli Roth's excellent new Hostel is pretty much the same scenario taken to its nightmarish extreme—and it even has more nudity. In its first 20 minutes, it's a virtual clone of EuroTrip: Two sex-starved collegians, crass Jay (Hernandez) and sensitive Josh (Richardson), and one fun-loving Icelander, Oli (Gudjonsson), find themselves in bong-friendly Amsterdam, where a creepy Russian informs them the real babes reside in Bratislava. Frustrated by Holland's glut of (other) stoned tourists, they head east, following their boners. Amazingly, the Russian is right: Almost immediately, the trio is propositioned in a palatial hostel's sauna by seminude lovelies. Let the games begin!
This being a horror flick, those games soon include pliers, chain saws and scissors—and one tasty cameo by Audition director Takashi Miike. Following up his snarky gross-out Cabin Fever with impressive political suggestiveness, Roth has produced a sly work on the perils of ugly Americanism; even better is his surprising last act, in which U.S. rage rears its vengeful head. For a certain crowd, Hostel will be the film to launch a thousand theses. For others, it'll be extremely gory good fun.
Author: JR
Time Out New York website
User reviews of this film
-
- avinash negi said...
- Posted on Apr 26 2009 10:02 jay hernandej ur acting in hostel is super ....u r really excilent in this movie..also hostel 2.. eli roth u r my best horrer film directer
- Report as inappropriate
-
- avinash negi said...
- Posted on Apr 26 2009 09:57 i love this film...acting is excilent in this movie..i really wanna acting in hostel next part
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Shelly said...
- Posted on Jan 27 2009 16:42 Ugh this movie was HORRIBLE!!! Good story, but executed horribly.
- Report as inappropriate
-
- tiffany said...
- Posted on Jun 18 2008 11:49 it is GRUSOME!!!!XXXxxxXXX
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Lila said...
- Posted on Aug 18 2007 22:18 I will see it tomorrow. Hope that I will not be affected to much
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Eli Roth
Producer: Chris Briggs, Mike Fleiss, Boaz Yakin, Scott Spiegel
Cast: Derek Richardson, Jay Hernandez, Takashi Miike, Rick Hoffman, Eythor Gudjonsson, Barbara Nedeljakova, Jennifer Lim full cast
Genre(s): Horror
Duration: 95 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now