What’s French for borrows from other movies?
Frontier(s) (2007): 4 out of 10: French take on that old The Hills Have Eyes chestnut with the cannibal incest family hunting the wayward travelers. But here the wayward travelers are Muslim cop killing rioters fighting the man and the cannibal incest family are also rapist Nazis. So does that make it better? Let’s find out.
The Good
The Good: The film seems well filmed, and the acting is decent. If you like torture porn, there is some of that here. The guy getting boiled to death in the steam room was well done. That’s about it.
The Bad
The Bad: Where do I begin? I have a theory that if you make a film in French with subtitles, your brain automatically thinks this is a good movie. Throw in some obvious political metaphors and an NC-17 rating, and this is a hardcore stick it to the man film.
It isn’t. It is Wrong Turn 8 or perhaps, in this case, Mauvais Tour Huit. Frontier is so derivative of other films I fear that a drinking game attached to such observations will lead to a death swifter and more horrible than any shown on screen.
I have been around pigs on a farm. Their excrement is a combination of toxic waste and the acid blood from Alien. Nobody is holding each other or kissing each other while covered in this stuff.
If you are going to rip off the second half of Hostel, do yourself a favor and rip off the first half as well. If that criticism is too subtle, you are making an exploitation movie with an NC-17 rating. Why is the nazi lesbian incest seduction scene fading to black while still at the panties and bra stage? For a minute there, I thought my stream had skipped a chapter. For God’s sake, your French filmmakers, show some pride.
The Ugly
The Ugly: I am not one who tends to root for the cannibalistic incestuous Nazis. Though with these protagonists, it is a tie.
At best, the movies “heroes” are a bunch of cop killing bank robbers like in Reservoir Dogs. At worse, they are Muslim extremists who hate France and liberty. Which would explain the obsessions with pigs and the women all mysteriously clothed, but I digress. There is no-one to root for in Frontier(s).
Now I understand that one of the bank robbers in Reservoir Dogs didn’t tip and another cut off a cop’s ear and doused him in gasoline while listening to Stealers Wheel, but there were one or two guys in that crew you could admire. There is no one here to admire. Both sides are doing society a favor by killing the other. Both groups are equally violent, nihilistic, misogynist and overall unpleasant.
To put a cherry on our pig excrement sundae, our final girl makes a decision so wholly out of character and so distasteful you want to throw her on the pyre with the rest of them.
In Conclusion
In Conclusion: Unpleasant film about unpleasant people doing unpleasant things to each other in French while covered in pig excrement and fully clothed. Enjoy.