I should have learned that when I hate the first part I will most likely hate second also. But a friend convinced me to watch it and I decided to give this movie another chance. Wrong, again. All I can think of is who the hell gave them money to make a sequel? And why Quentin Tarantino humiliated himself so much as to sign his name under this piece of crap?
Everything that was wrong with the first part is wrong with the second also. We have an identical story. At first I thought I was watching the same movie just that guys were replaced with girls. What a difference! At least change the number of main characters if you can`t think of anything else. Paxton (Jay Hernandez) appears for about 5 minutes in the very beginning of the movie only to be decapitated the moment later, so it is time for 3 new, totally not cliché characters. Right? Meet a total geek Lorna (Heather Matarazzo), a party girl Whitney (Bijou Phillips) and a lesbian Beth (Lauren German). And sadly this is all there is to say about those characters. So much about character depth and development. Probably in the attempt to make the characters at least a bit more likable this time around the girls are not traveling Europe for sex and drugs but for arts and they are not sent to this hostel in Slovakia for needy girls and guys but are told by Axelle (Vera Jordanova) that this particular place has a great spa. Wtf? Who thought of that?
Anyway, they travel there by train (I said already this is a complete copy of the first movie) and they are harassed by some creepy guys who, surprise surprise, have nothing to do with the hostel. Oh, are we done with predictability? No. If you watched the first movie you know what is about to happen. The hostel is not what it seems, Lorna and Whitney disappear (we witness a very bloody scene of Lorna being hung upside down, while some middle-aged woman is bathing in her blood – the only part where I rooted for the main character). By the way, this scene seems to be there just for the sake of it, but we are used to it from the first Hostel, so no surprises here. However, this movie has a “twist”.
Yes, Eli Roth made effort and changed a few lines in the movie and even added two new characters. And more I think of it, the more I cannot figure how anyone can make two potential killers so boring and cliché. I think Eli Roth sat down one day and thought to himself: “How can I screw up this movie even more?” And he came up with Stuart (Roger Bart) and Todd (Richard Burgi).
Not only is the whole “mystery” (or whatever you want to call it) from Hostel gone this time, as we witness the whole bidding process, which only makes it much less believable, but we have two totally normal people walking around talking how they are going to kill and torture someone. Excuse me if I don`t buy it. Todd seems to look forward to it, while Stuart is reluctant. Then why did you come with Todd anyway? Come on, people don`t just go on a killing spree because they think their friends will think they are cowards. This could really be a great opportunity to show what is really going on in the heads of the torturers, but instead we get two confused men, acting like two teenagers not knowing what to do with their free time and you just know they will change their demeanor in the end. This is exactly what happens, as the movie serves us with yet another “brilliant” and completely unexpected twist. People, look, Stuart is the psycho, he will kill Beth because she looks like his wife (or something equally plausible), Todd is the good guy! Just amazing.
But the end is even better. Beth has the money, she will buy Stuart to torture him. We even had smart foreshadowing as we were told early in the movie about Beth`s fortune. How superb! Of course they will just let her in their club of torturing, of course they will let a victim-to-be walk free out of the country and notify authorities. This is how they remained secret for so long, with this kind of policy. Eli Roth was probably so proud of himself to have come up with this way of freeing Beth. It is even better than Paxton`s revenge last time.
Overall, this movie doesn`t deserve a 0. It is a poor excuse for a horror movie and I would recommend it only to those 5 people who were so stoned during the first Hostel to actually like it. Others, get away from it as far as you can.
And again, what was the point of the Bubble Gum Gang?
