Paradise Lost (Turistas) - review

Paradise Lost (18)
Dir. John Stockwell

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Wanted: internal organs, kidneys and livers in particular – must be in good working order, preferable donors to be good looking backpackers… We are happy to remove them, all you have to do is turn up in the wrong place at the wrong time – leave the rest to us…
Director John ‘Into The Blue’ Stockwell is a man who specialises in making women look good on screen and he continues his ‘all females must be wearing bikinis for most of the film’ mantra in this tropical tale of death and misadventure in Brazil. Playing out like Hostel by the sea, Paradise Lost (or Turistas to give it its original title) delivers tropical, good looking, but ultimately by the numbers slaughter and peril. It’s the unhappy tale of a group of young hedonistic backpackers who find themselves in for some nasty involuntary organ donation whilst on vacation. There’s even an attempt at political messaging in amongst the drinking, smooching and machete wielding. Something like because western governments and corporations are responsible for exploiting the natural resources of foreign countries, it’s apparently little surprise that they want to hack up our citizens when they come visiting…
So U.S. travellers Alex (Josh Duhamel) and little his sister Bea (Olivia Wilde) meet Brit wideboy Finn (Desmond Askew) and sexy Aussie Pru (Melissa George) plus a couple of others and party hard at a beachfront bar. Next morning they awake dazed and confused having been drugged and had all their belongings stolen. This however is just the beginning of their nightmare as they soon find themselves at the mercy of crazed doctor / serial killer Dr. Zamora (Miguel Lunardi), who has intentions on their insides… Cue life or death struggle, a scene of surgery that is definitely not for the faint at heart and much running, swimming and hiding. Who will live, who will die? If you like horror films then you’ve probably seen variations on this theme many many times before but rarely have the protagonists been so attractive or spent so much time in swimwear.
Paradise Lost is watchable but uneven in pace and probably not a great pick for a date movie - one woman in the screening I caught turned to her partner and shouted ‘what the hell have you brought me to see?’ at one of the more unpleasant points.
Despite that unless you’re considering a backpack holiday somewhere exotic this year it is unlikely to be remembered for long.

Out of 5 you have to go with an eye catching but ultimately pointless 2.5...



"some reasons you might want to check out Paradise Lost"