Jun 2007 21

Quite some time now since I gave you a status update and a heads-up on the progression of “16″, “Showdown”, life and more. Anyway, do not fear, because here’s another summary of what has been going on for the last couple of weeks.

School finished a week ago! It’s a great relief not having to constantly think about what homework assignment I have to do next.

As you might have read I went to Gothenburg with Nils B, Johannes and my dad last Friday to go to the amusement park “Liseberg”. This is something we do every single year after school has finished, and it’s a great way to welcome the upcoming two months of pure relaxation. Although, that’s not really the case.

I’ve been working very, very hard at getting “16″ done since I came back from Gothenburg last Sunday. I finally finished the editing of the film today, and it came out pretty good. All that’s left to do know is to re-record some of the dialouge to make it more clear, as well as some colour grading, sound effects and music. But due to some technical difficulties I’ve had to push the release date back a bit (yes, I know, typical). The film will now be released sometime in the middle of July. To compensate for this I will post some nice bloopers from the shoot as well as more images before the movie is released. Expect more pictures from the movie at the end of this week.

“Showdown” will still be shot this summer! Everything is filmed for “16″, so there’s no holding back from shooting my first feature length film this summer. The script is pretty much done, and I reckon the movie will be shot mostly around July and the beginning of August, since most people seem to have come home from their vacations and such things. Will post more details on the shoot when we start of course, but as it’s looking now the film will be shot this summer for a worldwide release date sometime early next year.

I’m currently writing my “Dead Silence” review, but until I put it up, check out the new review of Hostel – Part 2 I just posted below this post. So, stay tuned for more information about the production of “16″ and “Showdown” and look forward to more photos from “16″ at the end of the week. Oh, and by the way, I was at the Elton John concert in Malmö yesterday. It was extremely good, and if you get a chance to see it, you definently should.

Take care everybody!

Jun 2007 21

I saw the “Hostel” sequel about a week ago, and here is what I thought about it. I’m going to try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible, but I can’t promise some minor plot info will be in the review.

The first “Hostel” film was a story about 3 foreign students who goes to Slovakia to party and find some lady-company. Of course, everything goes wrong and they are kidnapped and placed in a big warehouse where rich people from all over the world pay a lot of cash to torture and kill innocent tourists. It all turns into a very gory and bloody shockfest after one of the students manages to escape the evil organisation. The film was given pretty bad reviews, and I actually found it pretty disgusting (which I rarely do). For some reason I just had to see the sequel to what was called the most shocking film ever. The story in the sequel picks up just where the first one left off. This is pretty interesting, but for clichéd reasons that storyline isn’t followed for more than 5 minutes (read: the student who fled in the last film loses his head. Litterally.). Back in Slovakia we find the new victims, three pretty american girls who are just out and about in eastern Europe, travelling around. They too get invited to the small town in Slovakia with promises of free parties, drugs and good looking guys. Things are of course not as they seem and shortly therafter they find themselves in the same warehouse where the last movie’s events took place. An interesting twist to the whole movie is that we as the audience get to know the rich psychopaths before the “main event” and see them bid and pay to get the prettiest girl to torture.

I thought the mixed storylines were quite interesting, and it has a nice twist at the end which I don’t think anyone would have expected. There’s not as much blood and gore in this one, even if some of the scenes will have you twitching in your seat. It’s DEFINENTLY not for the faint of heart.

There isn’t really much to say about the acting. Everyone pretty much plays their role by the book. One of the Slovakian guys is the same guy who plays Viktor Krum in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He wears exactly the same clothes and speaks the same way as in the Harry Potter film, which proves for some pretty weird feelings related to his fate later in the story.

I really think Hostel: Part 2 is a better movie than it’s prequel, mostly based on the fact that it isn’t as disgusting as the previous one (except for one scene). I really don’t know what else I could write about it. Neither the sound or the music is really standout or special in any way. The film left me with a feeling that Eli Roth set out to do the most revolting story with the most disgusting images possible (even if he says he just wants to create a story about friendship and how it is in some countries…right). Nothing was really special about the movie except for how you see the entire story from two completely different perspectives. The movie’s better than being mediocre, but it’s not really a movie I would recommend. If you get a chance to see it and you think you can handle all the blood and gore, you should see it. But, if you don’t, you’re not really missing out on anything.

Verdict: 6 out of 10