UNRIVALED.INFO - The best original content



	Quick Movie Reviews: Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Hostel (2006)

1.6
Awful

Underworld: Evolution (2006)

Dumber and flatter than original.

The original Underworld released in 2003 was a solid story of the many centuries old war between Werewolves and Vampires. It’s a rather interesting movie that mixes story and style in a cinematic way, one that impressed me when I first saw it on the big screen (you can check out my 2003 review of the movie here). One of the elements that made the original movie good was its subtle approach to presenting the material at hand unlike the wacky and over the top approach of its competitor flick Van Helsing, which I hate by the way. The first Underworld was far from perfect as it has lots of flaws: most of the characters are too stiff or dry to be interesting and the movie lacks any kind of emotional impact. But it was more than decent enough to recommend and a fine example of a good movie. Underworld: Evolution however takes a different approach, one that unfortunately turns for the worst.

What Evolution accomplishes to do is unravel all the good elements in the first movie. The mystic war between the Werewolves and Vampires is cheapened to nothing more than a silly conflict that probably could have been avoided centuries ago. Old characters are brushed under the rug as if they were insignificant, and now that nearly everyone from the first movie is dead, there is no real war to speak of anymore. By the first 15 minutes of Evolution, the whole series is taken into another direction and is driven by its cheap plot, rather than following up on the first movie's great ideas. Why director Len Wiseman decided to take this route is anybody’s guess, perhaps he didn’t like the first movie and wanted to make Evolution into more of a pop corn flick (which he undeniably does). But I suppose this doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Even though it was both Wiseman and screen writer Kevin Grevioux who both worked together on the original Underworld, it was Grevioux who originally conceptualized the Underworld idea. Grevioux did not work on this movie. So much for the Underworld “trilogy.” I doubt we'll be seeing another one of these movies again, unless it breaks $200 million in the box office. Even if it does, I don't want to see it unless Kate Beckinsale does another nude scene. Not recommended.

2.4
Mediocre

Hostel (2006)

Sorry ladies, the buff guy in the teaser poster is NOT in the movie...

Going into Hostel, I pretty much knew what kind of experience I was going to get based on critic's reviews. It’s one half porn and one half gore. But some critics noted how well the movie was executed. It got better reviews than Saw part 1, which is a pleasantly decent movie. So I decided to give Hostel a chance. Did I make a good choice? For a movie fan expecting something great, this was a big waste of my 10 bucks! The story behind Hostel is a solid one: 3 young backpacking men roar their royal oats in Amsterdam, having lots of drugs and sex. They are somehow led to Bratislava in search of more cheap thrills in hot girls and drugs. But what they find instead is a trap that leads them to be captured and used as snuff club victims; a snuff club is where people pay major mojo to torture and kill human beings... for pleasure that is.

I’ll admit Hostel was fun to watch with a great crowd and I liked Rick Hoffman’s cameo in the movie. If your looking for this kind of thing it gets the job done. But other than that, Hostel is nothing more than a guilty pleasure exploitation flick for those who like to see limbs getting cut off and blood being spurt. The characters are weak and the plot is just plain awful. It’s definitely not for the weak of stomach, but those who get queasy with this kind of thing will even admit it does gets silly after a while. If your looking for something similar to Saw, you best keep looking as you wont find it here. Not recommended, unless of course you like gory films.