Movie Reviews: Hostel II & Gone Baby Gone

In the order in which I saw them this weekend.

Hostel: Part II - First, I liked the first Hostel. I thought it was right on par with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead, etc. This movie was basically the first Hostel, although with even LESS of a plot and a few other things that bothered me. For one, the apparent non-subplot of the survivor of the first Hostel. A little spoiler, but, why bother even putting writing him in in the way they did? Which, was just that...he was just "in" it for a little while with no relevance to the main or any plot. I think (I know) it was written in for one reason only. To have a reason for another gore scene (which wasn't even good). Bottom line: watchable movie, lots of gore, less nudity even though the leading roles were female. I wouldn't recommend it. The only thing it has going for it is the "concept" of Hostel being something somewhat realistically demented. They portrayed that even better in Part II by going into some character development of two of the "bad guys".

Gone Baby Gone - I'd be lying if I didn't disclose beforehand that I am a mark for Affleck. This was his directorial debut and he knocked it out of the proverbial park. Halfway through I thought the plot had run out and they were going to wrap it up....so I'm thinking, "eh it was ok", however, another 35-45 minutes left in the movie made it what it was. This movie put you in the shoes of almost every role, and made you, at some point, have strong feelings, be them negative or positive, for almost everyone in the cast. Those two points a lone made for a good movie. Coupled with a good story, and a good cast (Ed Harris was great) I highly recommend this movie. Casey Affleck, while you can still tell he is a little "green" plays a role that any guy would admire. Even though he is not the biggest, meanest guy, he portrays a complete smart/bad-ass very well. I guarantee you'll end up detesting some characters.