I found myself at a screening of this at the Sydney Film Festival - one of the producers was there to talk up the 'wild ride' we were about to be taken on which should have been a warning that it wasn't going to be that great. It starts off pretty well with a bunch of very attractive English party holidaymakers (very realistic, I've seen their types all around the world) hooking up for what is going to be a slightly sordid adventure. Once the title is mentioned in the film (Huzzah? anyone) you pretty much know exactly what's going to happen. Yes, it's a thriller but when there are seven people on a boat you pretty much know from the beginning that there's going to be a last man standing. The only real suspense is trying to guess which one it's going to be. All seven characters are complete stereotypes (really bad guy, ruthless guy, good guy and not so bad guy forced to do really bad things; party girl who gets knocked off early; middle ground party girl and slightly less inclined party girl). The characters get knocked off with very little imagination and it requires a bit of suspension of disbelief. I'm not going to ask for the 90 minutes back but I'm certainly not going to recommend it for anyone else to see - especially if they've already seen 'Dead Calm'; 'Shallow Grave' or any other film where a bunch of people are 'forced' into killing each other ...
Review of Donkey Punch
