Time for another double update. Only
one more update this week, then another theme week.
Today's double feature is The Best
Exotic Marigold Hotel and Hostel Part 3 (now there's a drastically
different experience for you).
-The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Evelyn, Douglas, Jean, Muriel, Graham,
Norman and Madge (Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Maggie
Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Ronald Pickup and Celia Imrie, respectively)
are British retirees who decide to spend their autumn years in a new
retirement “hotel” in India, run by Sonny (Dev Patel). Upon
arrival, they are less than impressed with the standards of the
hotel. Despite this, they stay and get used to the culture of India.
Based on a book that I haven't read,
Deborah Moggach's These Foolish Things, the film is a very pleasant endeavor indeed. While being more a collection of anecdotes than a
story with definitive beginning to end, it's a journey I enjoyed
taking. With one or two exceptions, I found the characters, at worst,
to be alright. At best, wonderful. I was especially impressed with
Tom Wilkinson's performance and his character ends up being my
favourite, with Judi Dench's and Bill Nighy's not far behind.
However, the weak character of the
ensemble is Jean. While Penelope is very capable, the character is
unlikeable right from the start, undergoes no growth and is the
closest thing the film has to an antagonist. Heck, Madge is more
likeable and she has NO character arc, she just kind of meanders
around.
Something that works here that didn't
work in Slumdog Millionaire (related only by Dev Patel appearing in
both and featuring India) is that the characters are immersing in the
Indian culture and it doesn't come across as scenery porn (my biggest
problem with Slumdog Millionaire is that it seemed to be more like
one huge advertisement for India, instead of an actual film), and the
revelation that Graham even lived there gives his character more
reason to be there.
It's not exactly going to set the world
on fire with original ideas (the bitter old racist learning not to be
racist? Who didn't see that coming?) but it's a lovely film and well
worth your time, regardless of age (for the record, I'm fairly
certain I was the youngest person in attendance for this showing).
4/5
-Hostel Part 3
It's Scott's (Brian Hallisay) bachelor
party and he and his best friend, Carter (Kip Pardue) head to Vegas
to meet up with companions Mike (Skyler Stone) and Justin (John
Hensley) and hit the clubs, meeting two escorts, Nikki (Zulay Henao)
and Kendra (Sarah Habel) along the way. But after Mike and Nikki go
missing, the others try and locate their friends, not knowing what
fresh Hell awaits them.
If you haven't seen a Hostel movie yet,
don't worry, this doesn't tie in with the other two films bar the
name and concept (that being “random strangers in foreign lands get
horribly murdered by the locals”). Part of the “torture porn”
genre, it's not a series I've held in high esteem. Sure, for a
horror/thriller fan like me, it's a good series but I've always
preferred the Saw series. Granted, towards the end it kind of lost
sight of what it was about, but at least it HAD a point to go on.
Hostel has always been “random partying Americans die in horrible
ways”. And I'm OK with that, though it does mean that the
characters are less likeable.
Hostel 3's only slight change from the
previous installments is keeping things in America. Does it alter
things significantly? Not really. I mean, if the commentary was meant
to be “shady stuff goes down in Vegas, be weary of it”, they
don't really take advantage of it. It could be set anywhere and it
wouldn't make a lick of difference. Not that it's a negative, just
saying that if this is the biggest change the movie has to offer,
it's not much.
There is another thing that's
different, though. Without wanting to spoil things, there's an actual
reason for these particular murders, beyond the series standard of
“rich people get bored easily, they need to get their kicks by
people getting killed”, one that's actually not terrible. Not
exactly original, but not terrible. So, points for that.
But what of the characters? Well, not
much to say. Standard thriller/horror fare, the main male and female
are the most rounded, the secondary female is promiscuous, the
supporting guys are nondescript. Not terribly acted, just about
average.
The kills, however, are really nice, as
I've come to expect. Again, no spoilers, but the first major death...
DAMN!
I'm sorry that there's not much to say
but well... it's a straight-to-DVD sequel from a series I find to be
rather average. This movie is about the same as the others, which is
both good and bad. Good because it doesn't bring the franchise
crashing down. Bad because with low expectations, they could have
tried something different and maybe give it a new lease on life. I do
recommend it somewhat, but I won't be upset if there's not a Part 4.
3/5
There was one movie I watched in
between these two, but I'll cover that and its predecessor in the
next blog, for the last double feature of the week before the theme
week.
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