PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 12/04/06)

Before it descends into dull sadism and general incoherence in its third act, Turistas is a mostly effective exploitation picture, the kind of movie that would have been proudly displayed on the marquee of a '70s-era grindhouse. Directed by John Stockwell (Crazy/Beautiful, Blue Crush) the film begins with the same American Assholes Abroad premise that drove the Eli Roth snoozefest Hostel from earlier this year. In this case, the assholes are Alex (Josh Duhamel) and Bea (Olivia Wilde), a brother and sister touring Brazil along with Bea's best friend Amy (Beau Garrett). On their way to their next destination, the trio is involved in a bad bus accident that leaves them stranded in the middle of the Brazilian countryside, miles from any major city. Fortunately, they weren't the only sightseers on that bus — their fellow passengers included London laddies Finn and Liam (Desmond Askew and Max Brown) and an Aussie hottie named Pru (Melissa George, getting to use her real accent for once) who also happens to be the only one among them that knows any Portuguese.

Rather than wait 10 hours for another bus that may or may not arrive, the group decides to camp out at a nearby beach where they can swim topless and knock back pint after pint at the local bar. After a long alcohol-fueled day and night, they awaken the next morning to discover that all of their stuff — money, passports, even their shoes — have been stolen. They don't receive a lot of sympathy from the local villagers, who treat them with a mixture of disdain and hatred. Eventually, a friendly teen (played by Brazilian soap star Agles Steib) agrees to help them by leading them to his uncle's house deep in the jungle. But from the moment they arrive, something doesn't feel quite right about this isolated residence. Maybe it's all the security cameras. Or the dog cages out back. Or the numerous passports they find stashed away in a desk drawer...

You can probably see where the rest of the story is going; these five not-so-innocent lambs have been led straight into the lion's den and have to escape before being brutally butchered. It's around this point that Turistas stops being fun and becomes yet another torture-obsessed gore parade like Hostel or Saw. The little suspense that remains is marred by chaotic editing and cinematography that's so dark, it's difficult to tell exactly which character is supposed to be in mortal peril in a given scene. It's a shame to watch the movie wander down the wrong path, because it does get off to a strong start. The opening bus crash is well staged and the encounters between the self-absorbed tourists and the hostile locals crackle with tension. In fact, this low-budget genre picture makes its points about the perils of miscommunication between cultures more effectively — and with greater narrative economy — than the similarly themed Babel. Instead of using Hostel as their model, the filmmakers would have been better off raiding from Deliverance, another story about a group of tourists that have to survive the vacation from hell. And let's face it: what happens to Ned Beatty in that movie is more frightening than anything the bloody-minded villain of Turistas can dream up.

— Ethan Alter