The Green Inferno is a slickly made, surprisingly well acted and all but competent except for one specific area (I'll get to that in a minute) film that would have been much more acceptable had the film not been in production hell for the last few years. I like to judge movies on how good they are and nothing else but after co-writer-director Eli Roth planning to have a wide release for this all the way back in 2013 and then waiting 2 (TWO) years to actually release it, it's a completely wasted opportunity that could have been so much more. There's all but one major problem with this gore fest---the script. I understand these films aren't exactly written to stimulate my brain power but writers Roth and Guillermo Amoedo all but give the middle finger to the audience with their nonsensical script.
The film follows Justine (Lorenza Izzo,) a bright college student who convinces herself to go on an expedition to stop demolishing of the rainforest. The reason she decides to go is that the charismatic Alejandro (Ariel Levy) leads this eco-friendly group. After accomplishing their mission, their plane crashes and they end up being brutally tortured by a group of rainforest tribespeople who think they're the enemy.
Roth garnered controversy early on because the tribespeople are played by a real rainforest tribe and perhaps Roth didn't go about getting them to be in the film in the most humane way. However, that's the least of this film's worries. In fact, Roth often tries to pull sympathy for them through the situation they're in, especially with an insultingly unearned group of facts about the REAL problem done over the end credits. The first problem is that it takes more than half the movie to even get to the plot. By the time they end up with the tribe, it's almost at the hour mark and more than likely, most audience members will have already checked out.
If the first hour were interesting, that would be one thing. However, despite halfway decent acting from the cast, this first part revolves around characters you couldn't care less about doing uninteresting things in even more uninteresting situations. Also, once the tribe gets torturing, it never is as ballsy as it should be. This isn't helped by the fact that the first thing Roth shows the tribe doing is brutally torturing and murdering one of the only two completely likable members of the eco team. This not only promises a 45 minutes of torture porn the film can't deliver but also shows Roth and Amoedo's complete disregard for the story they're telling. As well, there's a completely predictable twist that anyone who has ever seen a film can see coming less than five minutes in that ends up making the film feel icky but not at all in the way it should.
The acting is decent, even from a completely unknown cast (the only somewhat well known cast member was Daryl Sabara, of Spy Kids fame) and the film is very nicely made from a directing standpoint but The Green Inferno ends up being a fairly miserable experience that even Roth's most adamant supporters will have a hard time defending, especially with the "screw all of you" ending he tacks on for no good reason. As someone who generally likes Roth's work, I'd say just stay home and watch the first Hostel.
(2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for aberrant violence and torture, grisly disturbing images, brief graphic nudity, sexual content, language and some drug use)
nice review man
ReplyDelete