Screening Log
This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.
January 2006 activity
Total Log Entries: 67
- Adam (0)
- Andrew (0)
- Chet (0)
- Chiranjit (9)
- David (0)
- Eva (0)
- Evan (0)
- Ian (15)
- Jenny (4)
- Katherine (0)
- Leo (19)
- Megan (0)
- Rumsey (14)
- Teddy (0)
- Thomas (4)
- Timothy (0)
- Victoria (0)
Total Comments: 30
- Rope (0)
- Funny Ha Ha (0)
- The Wild Bunch (0)
- The Passenger (0)
- The New World (0)
- The White Diamond (2)
- Brokeback Mountain (0)
- Syriana (0)
- Oliver Twist (0)
- Kings and Queen (0)
- Fun with Dick and Jane (0)
- Mother, Jugs & Speed (0)
- Fun with Dick and Jane (3)
- Isle of the Dead (0)
- The Importance of Being Earnest (0)
- My Friend Ivan Lapshin (0)
- Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine (0)
- Buffalo ‘66 (1)
- My Neighbor Totoro (0)
- Rear Window (2)
- Kagemusha (0)
- Sátántangó (2)
- Badlands (5)
- Match Point (1)
- A History of Violence (0)
- Laputa: Castle in the Sky (0)
- A History of Violence (0)
- Twenty Days Without War (0)
- Blue Mountains (0)
- Repentance (0)
- Voyage of the Young Composer (0)
- Ocean’s Twelve (0)
- Ocean’s Eleven (0)
- A History of Violence (0)
- Cache (0)
- Reality Bites (0)
- Y tu mamá también (0)
- Hostel (1)
- Tarnation (0)
- Super Size Me (0)
- The Plea (0)
- Ashik Kerib (4)
- Shadows Of Our Forgotten Ancestors (0)
- Master of the Flying Guillotine (1)
- Paycheck (1)
- Chinatown (0)
- Attack of the Giant Leeches (0)
- Hostel (4)
- Munich (0)
- Open Water (0)
- Psycho (0)
- The Legend of Sea Wolf (0)
- Duel (0)
- Gerry (0)
- The New World (0)
- The Birds (0)
- King Kong (0)
- The First Teacher (2)
- Marnie (1)
- Murder! (0)
- Broken Flowers (0)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (0)
- Through a Glass Darkly (0)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (0)
- The Family Stone (0)
- Vernon, Florida (0)
- Torn Curtain (0)
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Hostel / USA / 2006
I imagine I would have appreciated Eli Roth’s sophomore effort much more had its brutal second half not been promoted so shamelessly in its marketing. The film hinges on the revelation of a seedy dungeon in which a trio of backpackers is summarily dismembered inside; because these bloody contents are known prior to seeing the film, viewers are partially analogous with the European businessmen that pay a hefty sum to torment and murder young travelers—and Americans fetch the highest price.
I relent to proffer any further adjectives of dismissal of its hedonistic contents (but here’re some if that’s what you’re looking for), but Hostel possesses some narrative flaws as a horror film. Specifically, I don’t buy the violent actions of Jay Hernandez’s character Paxton at the end—I think he should be much more frantic to remove himself from any equation of violence or anything that would implicate him in the horror he’s experienced. And the death of the dungeon’s sole female victim (at least, the only one I could discern) reinforces the charges of misogyny given liberally to this film. Finally — and unlike Roth’s debut, Cabin Fever — Hostel storms forward with little discretion and little suspense. The goal is to get to the sex and bloodletting, and neither is adequately established.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Lions Gate Films 35mm Print
09 Jan 2006 10:15 AM | Comments (1)
Albert / 12 January 2006 / 10:41 PM
The marketing definitely hurt my viewing experience. The second half was neither disturbing, nor shocking. It’s all I kept hearing about. I was actually slightly dissappointed it wasn’t more grotesque.