Donkey Punch

I can't understand why such an entertaining film is getting so many negative reviews. I found Donkey punch to be a good film on so many levels. It had an original story line. Strong parts for the female actors. A nice balanced build up to a crescendo of violence. Fab music and some nice photography.

It doesn't have any big name actors or any obvious lead, but that only makes it more refreshing. I have watched this film twice and while it may not be to everyones taste it is a piece work to be proud of. All in all a great job by Oliver Blackburn and the team. I will be looking out for more of his work, for sure.

Donkey Punch is more than competently directed, almost every aspect of it is superbly executed - save for the tiny matter called screenplay. The plot is so tired words cannot begin to describe it. There is not one event that cannot be foreseen from miles ahead by anyone who has seen more than two thriller movies in recent years.

The director is obviously very talented, and even the acting is above average compared to this type of fare (I'm looking at you My Bloody Valentine 3D with your silent movie-type overacting) but the plot is such a bore and there is a distinct lack of suspense throughout that instead of generating thrills it almost put me to sleep.

Any real chance of characterization sinks as soon as the characters begin to do awfully predictable and silly things, just for the sake of packing a punch to the audience - which in turn fails because everyone can see them coming.

And to think that British public funding is going to such stinking waste of material and talent is beyond comprehension. I am all for subsidizing mainstream films but Donkey Punch is a knockoff of dozens of movies we have seen, most of them better written.

Just a touch of originality would have elevated Donkey Punch to at least an average level, as it is now it is just not worth the time and investment. On the plus side: the soundtrack is awesome.

Firstly this is not a slasher movie nor could it even loosely be described as a horror it can barely even be described as a thriller as it's largely quite boring, the sex is not explicit and the violence not extreme.

I personally didn't feel the film was misogynistic and was one area where the film did succeed by not overtly portraying the females as victims except in places to (unsuccessfully) elicit sympathy and create tension. The female characters are simply one of two opposing sides that develop as a result of the titular sexual act which accidentally results in death which is an alternative to traditional good and bad set ups (as seen in say Eden Lake). If this element had been developed and handled properly it could have lead to an interesting moral conflict instead of lazily resorting to the thriller default plot devices of anger, fear and friends turning on each other.

In addition to the script problems some judicious editing to reduce the running time to around eighty minutes (from 95) would massively help the films leaden pacing which contributes to and ultimately cripples what could have been an interesting and original drama/thriller.

The girlfriends Lisa (Sian Breckin), Kim (Jaime Winstone) and Tammi (Nichola Burley) travel from Leeds to Mallorca, Spain, to spend a couple of days together having good-time on the beach. They meet Marcus (Jay Taylor), Bluey (Tom Burke) and Josh (Julian Morris) in a bar where they steal a bottle of champagne for fun. The young men tell that they are the crew of a motor pleasure yacht and they invite the girls to visit the vessel, where they introduce the chief-engineer Sean (Robert Boulter). The seven youngsters use ecstasy and smoke the powerful Russian Ice; Bluey talks about kinky sex including Donkey Punch and Dirty Sanchez; and they decide to navigate to the Mediterranean deep sea to see the sunset. The easy Lisa has sex with Bluey first and then anal sex with Josh; Vic has sex with Marcus and Tammi stays on the main deck talking to Sean. When Josh decides to practice Donkey Punch on Lisa, he accidentally kills the girl, in the beginning of a nightmarish gore night.

"Donkey Punch" begins erotic, with three sexy actresses very exposed, and ends gore after a weird accident. The title refers to a fictitious and mortal practice of anal sex, when the penetrated partner is punched on the head or neck to tight the anal passage and increase the orgasm of the partner. The greatest surprise in the story is that none of the partners use condom, i.e., all of them has unprotected sex. "Donkey Punch" will never be nominated to any Award, but it is entertaining and I liked it. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Prazeres Mortais" ("Deadly Pleasures")

This film has gotten some pretty low scores here on IMDB, and to be frank, I can definitely understand why this is the case. That said, I didn't think it was so bad and it passed the time well enough. It's just fairly shallow and stupid.

Truth is though that I can't totally resist a story about a party going terribly wrong, and I guess this is basically what we have here. It's pretty much an exploitation homage, and after the eponymous "donkey punch" episode, it goes exactly as you think it will. The characters, even the girls, are pretty thinly sketched and it's hard to imagine them doing anything outside of the story they are in, but nevertheless, the acting seems solid all across the board and everyone in the production did a commendable job. Still, the film doesn't exactly have any dialogue triumphs, and its climax (ha hah) is in fact the wild intercutting of the sex that rises to a fever pitch and then goes horribly awry. It was pretty hot stuff, and then turned to a genuine "oh crap!" moment, and I appreciated that.

Unfortunately what followed didn't give me anything that I didn't learn from 1970s exploitation movies, and those are a hard act to follow. I understand Dead Calm was an inspiration or at least an influence, but i still haven't seen that one. it's probably better than this was. The film didn't piss me off exactly but it didn't leave me with much feeling of any kind, either, and that's bad. The second half is supposed to be tense and psychologically frought, but it's oddly lifeless. It's all a bit vapid and everyone is pretty and stupid. There's a death that reminded me a little of I Spit on Your Grave. Some of the music was fun. Where'd those young boys get that yacht anyway? if they ever said, I missed it; this is not the sort of movie you'll remember a word from, either.