Rites of Passage

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.

"Grandmother Malloy I've come to beg for your roots. I promise to do you no harm. I need to borrow your magic for tonight." After an anthropology student decides to take a few of his classmates to a family ranch in order to do a mock ritual for extra credit they get more then they expect. His brother seeing this as a chance to get revenge for his family decides to make the ritual a real thing. So going in I was thinking this was going to be decent. While I was not totally wrong it could have been way better. The beginning was actually pretty entertaining and a little funny. The longer it went on though the more it started to drag and I was just interested enough to want to find out what happened. What started off as an interesting idea devolved into the kids in an abandoned area start getting killed off one by one type movie. While this is not a terrible movie this is still just OK. Overall, a fun and entertaining beginning gives way to a formulaic ending that isn't as fun. I give it a C+.

Attempting to visit an authentic Indian burial ground for research, a group of students partying away at the site run afoul of a demented killer looking to punish them for a past indiscretion and forcing them to fight him off to get out alive.

This here turned out to be quite a misguided effort, mainly because so much of it really doesn't gel together the way it is. The premise of turning a haunted burial ground into a slasher is quite novel and generates much of the positives toward this, but the fact that the killer is absolutely pathetic, generates no fear or suspense from his physical appearance since he's essentially a homeless person for all intents and purposes and runs around with a shotgun, not a true slasher weapon which relegates all the kills to gunshot wounds or merciless pounding with a foreign object, greatly reducing the gore quotient here that could've saved this. The constant drug use allows for a few freaky hallucinations from time-to-time but the vast majority of the time nothing substantial happens during the trip, rendering it quite curious as to why it was featured as it was and why there was a huge furor from the characters to include it, so overall this has way too many problems. Even more ridiculous is the animated talking sock puppet giving the lead advice, a tactic that tries to make this a comedy but fails miserably as it comes off as incredibly lame more than anything, and it really only has a few isolated individual moments where it approaches watchability to make this enticing.

Rated R: Continuous pervasive drug use, Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity.

It starts with the poster being misleading I was hoping the movie would be cool like the poster. The poster is actually way better than the movie.

The movie is supposed to be about Native American stuff, however if you blink you will miss the parts that have actual Native Actors. This film reinforces some dangerous ideas about recreational use herbs as hallucinogenic drugs, Cultural Stereotypes about Native people and the objectification of women.

Native woman are 3x more likely to be raped than other groups. This movie glamorizes the abduction and assault of Native American women which is totally inexcusable as a substitute for entertainment.

This movie actually sucks to the max. The acting is shoddy and its a terrible misuse of Stephen Dorff's talent (which is huge) I am really bummed he was in this turkey. Nobody in this movie is even Chumash and they managed to P' off an entire tribe of Native Americans for this tomato of a film. Nice one, jerks.

DON'T SEE IT!! Save the popcorn for a better occasion.

First - it takes WAY too long for this movie to get going.

Second - I believe in respecting all cultures, but this movie was so ridiculous (talking sock puppet), that I don't know how any Native American could be offended by any representations in the film.

Now, college professors and students look pretty stupid.

There ARE some pretty amusing moments.

Most from Christian Slater.

Although I felt all the actors did a great job, the material?

I wouldn't waste my time.

The "4" is because I actually made it through.