This is a poor film.
My review could end there because I would still have spent longer thinking about that sentence than the production crew appear to have done with this movie.
Part of the problem is that there is nothing likable about our heroes, or victims depending on your view. Right from the start of the film Alex (Josh Duhamel) is complaining about the whole third world experience and continues to moan and whine right up until he starts pouring booze down his throat.
Things don't get much better though once the partying starts on the beach. Once on the beach the director moves from banal dialogue and soap opera acting to art school camera shots and headache inducing images more relevant to the a Prodigy video than a cinematic experience.
The ubiquitous bikini shots obviously allow some good still shots for the film's PR campaign and will have drawn in the relevant audience and lets be honest, Melissa George is still holding it together well for a woman in her 30s. But this film wants to be more than a Blue Crush. However, John Stockwell, the director, isn't the man to deliver that kind of film. In fact I wonder if the director even met with his writer or editor at any point in the film's production.
As I watched this film I was reminded of another 'survival' film. Namely the recent re-working of 'The Hills Have Eyes'. Ironically Desmond Askew (Finn) was also in that film. In terms of structure and action set pieces 'Hill's wipes the floor with Turistas. Hills kept the viewer on the edge of the seat and is still one of the best latter day horror/slasher films that I have seen. Turistas wants to be these but is let down by poor lighting and camera work during the key action scenes both on land and in water.
All in all not a great experience for me, especially as this had been a film that I had wanted to see for some time.
3/10, purely for the fact that the Brazilian characters were authentically speaking in Portugese rather than acting with fake South American accents.
My review could end there because I would still have spent longer thinking about that sentence than the production crew appear to have done with this movie.
Part of the problem is that there is nothing likable about our heroes, or victims depending on your view. Right from the start of the film Alex (Josh Duhamel) is complaining about the whole third world experience and continues to moan and whine right up until he starts pouring booze down his throat.
Things don't get much better though once the partying starts on the beach. Once on the beach the director moves from banal dialogue and soap opera acting to art school camera shots and headache inducing images more relevant to the a Prodigy video than a cinematic experience.
The ubiquitous bikini shots obviously allow some good still shots for the film's PR campaign and will have drawn in the relevant audience and lets be honest, Melissa George is still holding it together well for a woman in her 30s. But this film wants to be more than a Blue Crush. However, John Stockwell, the director, isn't the man to deliver that kind of film. In fact I wonder if the director even met with his writer or editor at any point in the film's production.
As I watched this film I was reminded of another 'survival' film. Namely the recent re-working of 'The Hills Have Eyes'. Ironically Desmond Askew (Finn) was also in that film. In terms of structure and action set pieces 'Hill's wipes the floor with Turistas. Hills kept the viewer on the edge of the seat and is still one of the best latter day horror/slasher films that I have seen. Turistas wants to be these but is let down by poor lighting and camera work during the key action scenes both on land and in water.
All in all not a great experience for me, especially as this had been a film that I had wanted to see for some time.
3/10, purely for the fact that the Brazilian characters were authentically speaking in Portugese rather than acting with fake South American accents.