From the Vaults Double Feature: Hostel II and Ocean's Thirteen (?)

editor's note: To give you some idea of how much older Blogorium entries drop off as "From the Vaults" winds down, I present a double review of two sequels. I'd be willing to bet that no other reviewer ever mentioned them in the same post, nor should they. That being said, I believe that both films a (under) represented fairly.


I've attempted to get people I know who like horror movies to at least watch Hostel, but for many of them, it got caught up in the wave of post-Saw garbage and they consider it to be as crappy, and to some of you, it might be. From where I'm sitting, Hostel is light years better than Saw, and this is coming from someone who grew to HATE Cabin Fever for it's inconsistency in tone and inability to end. Eli Roth made a giant leap forward with Hostel, and it really is a more mature picture than anyone will ever believe it to be.

That being said, if I can't convince you all to watch Hostel, then there's no chance you're going to see Hostel Part II, which from everything I've read is at least tonally a departure from the original, and plays familiar notes in unexpected ways. So yes, I do want to see Hostel Part II, without the trepidation I approached the first film with.

On the other hand, I've totally given up trying to convince people to see the Ocean's movies. Again, it's an issue of people already making up their minds about a sequel to a sequel of a remake that many of you probably didn't like anyway. That Ocean's Twelve was Steven Soderbergh's ode to European films of the sixties is beside the point, because you either want to see them or you don't. I remember when I saw Ocean's Twelve with Jenn she enjoyed it, and I think Andrea fell asleep during Ocean's Eleven. Call me crazy, but I really like the group of actors who come together to hang out, and that easygoing vibe permeates the screen and in turn makes for two hours of harmless fun. Is it going to improve your quality of life? Probably not, but it is a good time.

The decision to see Ocean's Thirteen turned out to be both necessary and serendipitous; when I called Liz to follow up on a raincheck for last weekend's movie, it turned out she hadn't seen Hostel or either of the Ocean's movies, and since it wasn't imperative to see Ocean's Twelve or Ocean's Eleven in order to watch Thirteen (whereas it seemed pretty necessary to have seen Hostel), that's what we went to see.

Earlier in the evening, Adam called to give me his two cents on Hostel Part II, and as the conversation went on, it became abundantly clear that his minor problems with the movie were actually HUGE problems and he came to the realization that he really wasn't going to ever see it again, which didn't give me much hope. I saw Hostel because he recommended it, and we have a similar taste when it comes to horror movies. If he truly recommends something (not like when he says "go see *snicker* Venom") then it's worth seeing to me, but his problems with Hostel Part II echo our problems with Cabin Fever, and apparently the plan to replace the more lurid aspects of Hostel to make things creepier may not quite work. He said it was a better rental, so I'll probably do that.

However, Ocean's Thirteen was perfectly enjoyable, as I expected it would be, and easy enough to acclimate to that Liz didn't have a problem keeping up with the who's who. It doesn't hurt that the films all rely on certain key elements: dialogue which is short handed to the point of being impossible to decipher, characters double and triple switching plans, and surprise twists near the end, so that if you're willing to keep up with the movie itself then knowing the character connections isn't crucial. I'm curious why neither Julia Roberts or Catherine Zeta Jones weren't available for even a cameo, but there was more than enough fun in adding Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, David Paymer, Julian Sands, Bob Einstein (aka Super Dave Osborne), and nice repeat performances from Vincent Cassel and Eddie Izzard (who has a MUCH larger role than in Ocean's Twelve).

Again, I know I'm not going to change many minds here, but I still say Ocean's Thirteen is as good as any of them, and I'm sure it'll fund the next three or four oddball Steven Soderbergh film projects.