Without making this review to long, I just want to say that Turistas starts off well, and then goes way downhill once the "horror" begins. The opening half of the movie is very well developed. It draws out it's characters well, sets up moments of suspense for the horrors that will come, and keeps the viewer interested due to it's beautiful cinematography.
Once the terror and violence actually begin (which doesn't happen until the last third of the movie no less) it goes way downhill. For one, it was marketed as a torture movie, but there is barely any of it! Sure, there's a brutal killing here and there, but when it came to gore, this film was very tame. Second, the cinematography in during the night scenes was awful,with the chase scenes and violence barely viewable. You could not tell what was happening on screen, and all of the viewers of the film were lost with what was going on. Third, the last third was extremely predictable. You could tell who was going to die and when. The main villain (who ironically looks like the President of Iran) is not well drawn out, and the "climax" of the film is pitiful.
There is however, fine acting jobs done by all involved, and a particular death scene that made me squirm in my seat due to its brutality and intensity. When the chase scenes and violence were actually viewable (of which it rarely was) it actually was pretty intense. However, the actual deaths were not (save one or two), and the dumb decisions made by all of the characters may be the stupidest yet to grace the screen this year.
It's sad. Turistas had potential. It started off great, but just went in the wrong direction I guess. I have never seen a movie that fell so much on its rear.
