Turistas

Turistas, from 2006, could be assigned to that teeming trough of films called torture-porn, but that would be a mistake. It's not a very good film, but its flaws are not in fetishizing torture. The film isn't really that gory. What mistake it does make is to classify Brazilians as both malevolent and incompetent.

The set-up is familiar: a handful of tourists, from either America, England, or Australia, team up after a bus accident and find an idyllic beach location. They decide to hang out there instead of waiting for the next bus. Of course, there are being lured there in order to be kidnapped and having their organs removed by a doctor who is tired of poor Brazilians selling their organs to rich gringos.

The characters aren't terribly well-defined: Josh Duhamel stars as a guy who is overly cautious in protecting his sister, Olivia Wilde. There are a couple of obnoxious Londoners, and Melissa George is a well-traveled Australian who knows the local language. Beau Garrett is Wilde's friend, and I'm not sure if she had more than two lines. Her most vivid scenes are those in which she is opened and has her organs removed.

The film was directed by John Stockwell, who has an interesting directorial career. He's made films that are better than they should have been, like Blue Crush and Crazy/Beautiful, but he's also made schlock like Into the Blue. Turistas, then, can't really be considering slumming for him, as he hadn't made what could be classified as a top-shelf film. But it is interesting visually, with some stunning underwater photography.

Turistas got into trouble for giving Brazilian tourism a black eye. This has since been remedied by having most of these types of films set in a vague, sinister Eastern Europe. But in addition to making Brazil look like an exceptionally dangerous place (which it may well be for all I know), it also has the bad guys easily outwitted by their Anglo captives. If you do go to Brazil, make sure to take with you a Swiss Army knife, since your captors won't frisk you to find it.