Turistas isn’t going to bolster Brazilian tourism, that is unless you have spare organs you don’t think you need. This picture starts off slow but picks up just enough midway through to make sure most moviegoers are sure to be satisfied. It might be by-the-numbers but with a thriller like this that is really all it takes.
The film stars Josh Duhamel, Melissa George, Beau Garrett, Olivia Wilde, Desmond Askew and Max Brown. Duhamel and George are your main stars here but Wilde and Garrett offer a fair bit of eye candy. Wilde, of course, is probably best known as Marissa’s lesbian love toy from “The O.C.” and while Beau Garrett has seen limited acting work she will soon become a comic geek idol when she stars as Frankie Raye in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer next year, but I don’t think she will be showing as much skin as she did here.
Turistas certainly offers up the skinage, but it also offered up enough gore to encourage a few couples that were in my screening to leave after investing an hour in a film that only runs for 89 minutes. It was the first, and really only, gory scene of the film, but it was enough to get them to vacate their seat. That said, to call Turistas a horror is a misclassification. This is Into the Blue with a dose of amateur surgery to get things going. This isn’t a surprise as director John Stockwell has gone to the beachfront for his films two times before with both Into the Blue and Blue Crush. Granted he doesn’t give us the obligatory Jessica Alba ass shots, but the T&A supplied by Garrett, Wilde and George take care of that need.
This isn’t an instant classic but it is worth it at matinee prices or a DVD rental. Considering this isn’t a horror the “watching it at night scenario” doesn’t come into play and will save you a little extra dough if you decide to check it out in theaters. The script is weak, the plot is thin, but this movie is enough fun to give it a passing grade. Check it out with a group of friends and try not to expect too much and you should have a good time.
