Invitation Only (2009)

Load of rubbish!!

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Usually is Hollywood who does the rip-off, taking different foreign productions and making the worst out of them. Well, I have now lived to see it otherwise, Invitation only, the absolute worst of revenge gore.OK, so stating that it is more gore than horror should be a no brainer, but while we are playing this card, let's also admit that it is a bad production, not the worse gore use out there, bad acting, a plot of a B- film, and overall easily predictable. Reasons to see it? Not many, I say you stay with the American ones, I actually find those smarter and it is a more familiar concept there, thus, resulting in better productions. Invitation Only could be accepted as a first try, the smallest of baby steps, but a step nonetheless. Beyond that, this film should be ignored. It even feels too long for what it delivers.Cheers!

When Wade Chen (Bryant Chang), who is the driver of President Yang (Jerry Huang) of the Weida Group, accidentally sees his boss shagging a top-model in the backseat of his car, Yang surprisingly invites him to go to a high-society party. Wade thanks and tells that he has neither money nor clothes to go to the event, but Yang tells the he would sponsor everything to Wade that could tell that is his cousin. In the invitation, the guest is requested to fulfill with the offbeat dream. In the party promoted by Mr. Warren in a warehouse, Wade gets closer to Miss Liang and two other rookies. Each one of them sees the dream coming true but sooner the quartet discovers that they are the lead attraction of the party that is promoted to torture losers in a deadly fight of classes. "Jue Ming Pai Dui" a.k.a. "Invitation Only" is another brutal film of sadism and torture. I do not like this sub-genre of horror and I have already seen similar sadism before, since the stories are very alike with a shallow pretext to show graphic tortures. This unpleasant film is not the worst slasher and the special effects and makeup are very realistic but unfortunately the plot is ridiculous. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "Acesso Restrito" ("Limited Access")

Heralded as Taiwan's first slasher movie, you wonder what took it so long (really?). Director Kevin Ko knows the ingredients to make it work though, with copious amounts of thick, crimson blood and the numerous shots of hot female bods in slinky dresses grooving to the beat right from the start for that cursory first kill as an appetizer before the main course. Heck, I think the casting of Japanese AV star Maria Ozawa was a shrewd move as well, for what it's worth, at least to get her fan boys into the theatre for this.The filmed worked like clockwork though, introducing us to a loser/slacker Wade (Bryant Chang), a chauffeur who one day unwittingly chances upon his company CEO Yang (Jerry Huang) in a compromising position with Ozawa's fashion model in the backseat of the S500 Benz (which I tell you has plenty of room for that kind of shenanigan). In order to shut him up, Yang offers Wade the chance to live the high life through an all-sponsored invite to a high society event, which promises the fulfillment of one's fantasy, and the networking opportunities abound when rubbing shoulders with society's elite.But of course there's no such thing as a free lunch, and soon Wade got more than he bargained for, after getting his wishes satisfied of course, with unbelievable winnings at the gambling table, a gift of a Ferrari, and the highlight? Bonking the much coveted fashion model which made Ozawa look real comfortable aside from her very contrived acting with clothes on.Things of course are more than meets the eye, especially when this underground event gets situated in the same warehouse in the opening scene, and soon enough the newcomers to the party, Wade included, are unmasked for being the fakes they are, and the body count begins. It's a little peculiar as well that the story chose to show all quite early in the film, and settled instead for plenty of bloody gore with scenes crafted that will make you shrink in your seats, so much so that even an R21 rating here didn't get passed clean, with a jarring edit made to a facial treatment.If there's anything close to this offered by the West, then Hostel would come close. But I have to admit that the story did offer something that's refreshingly bizarre with its preaching (or beliefs) of the characters on the the rich-poor divide, where torture becomes a gladiatorial sport to satisfy what's being perceived as injustice being done. It's hunter versus prey for the masses, until the prey begin to fight back when forced to a corner.As with any slasher flick there are a number of plot loopholes that will make you chuckle, such as the extremely poor logistics the villains have set up, as well as very silly goons being employed. The execution of the premise and the performance of a number of not-so- beautiful cameos (read: high society aunties) were really bad, and I cannot help but to laugh out loud at the implausible, obligatory car-chase scene involving a Ferrari and a pick up, which did highlight the modest budget here because creative camera techniques were employed to simulate a minor wreck. Of the Ferrari that is.Still, this film drew in the crowds and I was quite surprised that it was quite the date movie as well. To the jaded torture porn viewer, the film is like a walk in the park which delivers exactly what you'd come to expect, plus some unintentional comedy when things get played straight.

Two males and three girls receive, each of them, an invitation to a party destined only for rich and successful business people. Once there, they are locked inside the building and someone start to hunt them. One die, two others, badly wounded, are captured and dragged on a stage. There, in front of other guests from the high-society, their stalkers torture them in some gruesome ways. The two (remaining) main characters try to escape this nightmarish location while the bad guys are on their steps.If you have seen "Hostel" and liked it, you will probably enjoy this one too, at least three scenes have the exact same feeling. There's a lot of blood flowing from the both sides, the baddies and the victims. The movie start slowly and constantly accelerate until the climactic ending. I found some plot holes, the first being right at the beginning. It helps you to get in the mood, but the location has no connection with the rest of the story, at least in my opinion. Visually, I have some mixed impressions. Most of the footage seem to be caught on film, while other sequences looked more like a digital camera recording. There's a certain amount of shaky camera movement during the run/caught/fighting moments, but the rest is OK. The editing is good, allowing the viewer to see what's going on. Some moments are well defined visually, emphasizing the atmosphere (the axe in the final battle), other less (a car chase between a Ferrari 360 Modena and a pick-up truck), some have an unnatural feeling(completely deserted roads at night, a police check in a road tunnel with zero traffic).So...Not a masterpiece, because it's nearly impossible to make a masterpiece today from this genre. But not a bad or boring movie. More, it has more twists and turns than your average slasher/horror movie, good makeup and some cool death/torture scenes. Bonus, nice Taiwanese girls and a female lead not only beautiful, but also smart. This helped me to care for her, after so many years of horror films where the young victim girls were so stupid.