The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007)

So much average

Purely Joyful Movie!

It is a performances centric movie

A different way of telling a story

A group of National Guard trainees find themselves battling against a vicious group of mutants on their last day of training in the desert. The Hills Have Eyes II (2007) is a sequel to the 2006 remake The Hills Have Eyes. Although it's nowhere near as good as the first film the sequel will satisfy fans of the Series and if you're looking for over the top gore? You're going to get that. Of course the acting isn't anything special but it's alright, the characters are forgettable, the dialogue rather hilarious at times and some things that eventually happen in this movie make zero sense. But if you can pass on it's problems it's a fun horror film that will be enjoyed more with some pop corn and some friends in a Sunday Afternoon. (7/10)

A group of raw and wet behind the ears National Guard trainees run afoul of a family of savage predatory mutants in the desert. Director Martin Weisz, working from a compact script by Wes and Jonathan Craven, relates the engrossing story at a snappy pace, maintains a go-for-the-throat gritty tone throughout (both the opening monster birth scene and a harsh rape sequence are quite nasty and hard to watch), delivers a handy helping of in-your-face unflinching graphic gore, makes fine use of the sprawling and desolate desert location, and generates a good deal of tension. The solid acting by the capable cast keeps this movie humming: Michael McMillian as wimpy pacifist Napoleon, Daniella Alonso as the sassy Missy, Jessica Stroup as the feisty Amber, Lee Thompson Young as the gutsy Delmar, Flex Alexander as the hard-nosed Sarge, Jacob Vargas as the hot-tempered Crank, and Jeff Kober as the foulmouthed Redding. Moreover, the mutants are really fearsome and grotesque, with Michael Bailey Smith as brutish patriarch Papa Hades, Derek Myers as the vicious Chameleon, Gaspar Szabo as the relentless Sniffer, and David Reynolds as the kindly and helpful Hansel rating as the most memorable of the beastly bunch. Both Sam McCurdy's crisp widescreen cinematography and the spirited shuddery score by Trevor Morris are up to par. A satisfying follow-up.

After watching the hills have eyes remake I never expected anything spectacular, however this is probably one of the worst films I have ever seen.It's the typical rather than stick together and run away let's all do our own thing in dark tunnels with no backup plan. It truly is utter crap, even the creepies are sub standard. It's almost like a horror goonies, but not funny or good. The acting is so bad it's not even ironic, wes craven just seems happy to put his name to anything in the horror genre. Seriously pick another film any things got to be better than this dribble.

The 2006 remake of "The Hills Have Eyes" was a decent slasher-in-the-desert flick; forgettable but entertaining nevertheless. So here we have the 2007 sequel.A group of National Guard trainees go to a mysterious camp in the New Mexican desert to resupply and train, but they find it abandoned. They soon discover that the barren "hills" are infested with a bunch of hideous mutant cannibals. Can they get out alive? I was actually impressed with the serious and sometimes moving vibe this film has. It may be a gory slasher flick, but the filmmakers make it respectable. The cussing-every-other-word tends to bring the respectability down, but I was in the Marines and this was how enlisted guys talked in the field, generally speaking. By "moving" I refer to the love & loyalty that members of the team reveal for each other over the course of the story and the accompanying score.Some complain about the stupid mistakes the soldiers make but, remember, they're trainees, and National Guardsmen at that, not career soldiers. Besides, mistakes are always made in the heat of life-or-death combat.I heard someone else complain about Jessica Stroup being too good-looking to be a soldier, but I've seen some hot enlisted babes. One girl I knew from high school enlisted in the army and she sent me a pic of her at an Army party in Europe wearing a bunny costume and she was as hot as any Hollywood starlet you'd care to name (she's now a cougar Colonel, lol).The problem with this movie is the thin plot. My description above is the entire story. The whole film's an intense survival situation.Those who like gory slasher or survival flicks should like this, especially if you prefer military-oriented stories. I'm only giving it a fairly low rating because it's not a film I'm anxious to see again. There's just not enough depth, epic-ness or hot women for my tastes (although Jessica Stroup has a really cute face), but that's just me.The film was shot in Morroco (of all places) and runs a short-but-sweet 89 minutes.The DVD I saw is the unrated version.GRADE: C+ (or B for gory slasher fans)