Wordiezett So much average

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Leofwine_draca THE FINAL RITES (aka RITES OF PASSAGE) is a very strange little movie. It involves a group of high school students who are being taught about esoteric Native American drugs by their slick teacher. One of the students has an elder brother who experiments with these narcotics, which turns him into a psychopath. Inevitably a group of the students go away for the weekend for a beach holiday and find themselves being menaced by all and sundry.There's a definite sense here that the story was being made up as they went along. Certainly it seems to make little sense and by the end it's fallen apart entirely, so the "narrative" consists of characters killing each other off until only the final survivors are left. The first half of the film, which is the build up, is actually mildly enjoyable, so it's a pity that the it goes absolutely nowhere come the end.Three famous faces are mixed up in this mess. Wes Bentley plays virtually the same likable loner/weirdo character as he did in American BEAUTY. Stephen Dorff shows up as a cool teacher who's down with the kids, and strips off to show his buff body when required. Then there's an almost unrecognisable Christian Slater, hilariously playing a demented psychopath who just wants to kill everybody. His interactions with a sock puppet bring to mind the PG Tips adverts in the UK starring Johnny Vegas and Monkey. It's all very silly and relatively bloodless, meaning there's not much here for the viewers.

Reladamjod This was a fun movie, Slater and his little imaginary buddy stole the show. The acting was very good, much better than most movies out there as compared to big budget productions and far superior to the goofy movies churned out on Chiller or SciFi networks. Worth the watch, especially knowing the background & history of how the film was made by two friends who met while in college, and then 30 years later finally got together to make this movie. It's something they can be proud of, I'm hoping more people will watch this film as word of mouth should raise an low, unfair IMDb rating. It's rare that I'm pleasantly surprised by an "unknown" horror genre film (my favorite category), this one is definitely worth the watch.

Tory Casey By the looks of the previews, I expected this film to be like every other horror film out there. It actually was a lot better than I expected. Some moments kind of seemed strange to me, but the whole story tied in together well. There was really no loose ends or confusion. Not scary or anything like that, but pretty humorous and there were parts where I gasped or grew anxious. Also, the story takes place here in Santa Barbara and he really captured the way the town really is, especially in Isla Vista. I found that very interesting. For the movie being shot with such a low budget and with a single camera, Peter Illif gets a lot of credit for making this movie fairly descent and also for grabbing actors such as Wes Bentley and Christian Slater. My attention was captured a lot more than I thought it would be. I would recommend watching it if you are from the Santa Barbara area or are between 17-30.

keepitsimple89 the notion that people would have issues "unrelated" to the themes portrayed in this movie is invalid. the very fact that this movie chose to capitalize and exploit native culture for a mere thrill factor is reason enough for some people to find it offensive and a poor representation of the native community. just because you got a couple of native people to get on board with the project in no means makes it OK nor does that small group represent first nations community of this country. and in this day and age when native Americans are being misrepresented and portrayed stereotypically left and right it's no surprise that this movie would once again portray native people in a stereotypical misrepresented manner. the problem is this American society that we live in doesn't find it necessary to really educate themselves about our culture or way of life unless it serves them in some way, i.e learning enough to make a believable thrasher film. because if this society did truly educate themselves they would acquire enough respect and dignity that they wouldn't exploit an already damaged culture that has been almost completely eradicated in the name of the American dream. but of course this film represents America, Hollywood, where nothing is sacred. everything is exploited for a buck and entertainment. so while you go ahead and exercise your rights at the expense of others, just remember why you chose to do it. not to educate people about a culture and a people, it was to entertain with blood murder, drugs and Indians.