a hostile hostel

over the past week or so there has been a bit of a 'situation' going on over at my favorite online movie critic's page(s). its been very interesting, and also a bit humorous too.

here is the situation: david poland, the movie critic, got a bootleg copy of the movie 'hostel 2'. he said he would turn it into the authorities (which i assume he did), but on a whim he watched parts of it first. he was repulsed, and said so on his website here (warning: he gives spoilers and some rather graphic descriptions of scenes from the movie). he speaks about the film and how disgusting it is. he speaks of the movie and questions how something so "disgusting, degrading, misogynistic, [and] soulless" could have been released by a studio. he goes on to question those who greenlit it and financed it, he then asks what the director/writer, eli roth, was thinking and how he could justify the exploitation of the movie.

then, eli roth responds to polands accusations during an interview on 'attack of the show' (if you would like to see it, go to this site, then type 'eli roth' in the search bar, and its called 'the loop one on one: eli roth'). he claims that 'hostel 2' is a movie about female empowerment and is packed with political and social commentary. he goes on to call out poland and demand that his journalistic credentials be stripped away.

david then responds on his website here, and there is a flood of comments posted after his response. much of the reactions and discussion is actually quite intellectual- it rarely falls into the standard 'you suck!' internet debate one would find on most sites.

i have no interest in seeing the film (before or after all this went down), but it has been very interesting to follow the feud and resulting discourse. if you have any interest, the links above could provide you some thought-provoking conversations.