TURISTAS (John Stockwell). 89 minutes. Opens Friday (December 1). For venues and times, see Movies, page 107. Rating: NNN Rating: NNN
Director John Stockwell completes the babes-in-bikinis trilogy he started with Blue Crush and Into The Blue with Turistas, a nasty little Kon-Tiki tour from hell about a group of tanned and toned travellers terrorized in the Brazilian jungle.
The unworldly Alex (Josh Duhamel), his sister Bea (Olivia Wilde) and pal Amy (Beau Garrett) are joined by seasoned Aussie Pru (Melissa George) and British comic relief Finn and Liam (Desmond Askew and Max Brown) for a little fun in the sun.
First, their bus careens off a mountain road, they’re drugged at a beachside disco and have all their possessions – even their flip-flops and ball caps – stolen, and then they’re chased through the jungle by a gang of black-market organ thieves led by a diabolical doctor who insists on justifying his madness over the open chest cavity of his latest uncooperative donor.
While the premise sounds like a Hostel knockoff, gore for gore’s sake is never on the itinerary.
Turistas actually has more in common with the superior The Beach and Wolf Creek, particularly in the way it slowly builds the dramatic tension before reaching its grisly conclusion with a breath-catching chase through a labyrinth of underwater caverns that leaves everyone slurping trapped air bubbles for survival.
