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Donkey Punch (2008) More at IMDb Pro »

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60 out of 92 people found the following comment useful :-
Donkey Pish, 9 July 2008
3/10
Author: DelBongo from Brighton, UK

I can't remember the last time that a movie squandered as much goodwill in such a short space of time as this one does. The first half is genuinely terrific, as six lairy, sexed-up twenty-somethings flirt, take drugs and confabulate on a yacht anchored off the coast of an unnamed Spanish island. Its like Hollyoaks as directed by Larry Clark, and it is totally gripping.

But as soon as the titular incident occurs (and the titular incident really does occur; just in case anyone else suspected that the title was merely a jocular come-on) the plot suddenly helter skelters straight into a brick wall; turning into the kind of dated, tiresome trash that isn't only shockingly predictable, but also entirely unaware of its own predictability. The film's twists are broadly apparent a full ten minutes before they occur on screen, which makes for an experience that isn't only boring, but also deeply and repeatedly annoying.

This is one of those thrillers in which every cast member gets a turn playing the volatile psychopath, purely because the script can't get around the fact that the previous character to go loopy has just been safely locked in a cupboard.

It never once stops being faultlessly directed - debutant Oliver Blackburn coaxes some really outstanding performances from his young cast, and there are a couple of devilish moments of genuine suspense and black comedy - but these jiffys are like a tiny number of slowly deflating rubber dinghies sinking into a gigantic ocean of generic pish.

People merely looking for explicit sex will be very well served, but the violence and gore is surprisingly tame for something that's being marketed as a plasma-stained killfest.

A very brief, but nevertheless apt and effective homage to Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm aside (a film so infinitely superior that I feel guilty for even having mentioned it here) this is just a shoddy, witless bore of a film.

And it all started so well.

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16 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
Haven't I Already Seen This?, 9 June 2008
4/10
Author: saxifrage2020 from Australia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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 ...

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Wild teens on a boat goes awry after Donkey Punch, 3 August 2008
8/10
Author: Richardm777 from Australia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Probably one of the dead hippest films of 2008 Oliver Blackburn's Donkey Punch from the UK is a treat. I saw it at MIFF in Melbourne. Its about three 20 year old girls hooking up with four likely lads on their luxurious boat and heading out to sea after the Spainish coast to smoke Russian Ice and take pills. At the height of the merriment discussing kinky sex, the subject of a Donkey Punch comes up. DP is a misogynist sex technique where you punch a women in the back of the head, as you are about to achieve release in the doggy style position, to give her involuntary spasms in a certain part of the female anatomy. Its mostly urban myth, the reality of this sex technique... though I'm sure some idiot has tried it. Anyway, during a preceding orgy the loner geek of the group is egged on to do a Donkey Punch and kills, naturally, the blonde. Chaos ensues as the youngsters bump each other off - either trying to cover up said death or trying to get away from the cover up to tell the Police. Great film. Blackburms direction is assured and the script suitably on the edge. Young, well shot, dead hip, drug fuelled, dangerous, controversial. Strong performance by a young cast round the film out well, especially that of the heroine Jaime Winstone (I assume thats Ray's daughter?). From Warp films. A lethal hip treat.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Not nice, but not bad, 23 July 2008
7/10
Author: neil-476 from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This small scale British film was partially funded with Lottery money, and has certain elements of the right-wing press frothing at the mouth for the way it portrays young British people.

I have to say that it's not a nice film. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad film, or an unenjoyable film.

Three young women from the north of England go on holiday to the Mediterranean. They accept an invitation onto a boat crewed by four young men. What follows is an evening of drugs and sex, culminating in the donkey punch of the title - a mythical sexual act invented by one of the men and foolishly put into effect by one of the others, as a result of which one of the girls dies. The four men and the two surviving girls then have to decide what to do about the dead girl, and the various different personal agendas and deteriorating relationships lead one to wonder if they will all survive the night (it's probably not a spoiler if I say that they don't).

It's fair to agree that the early part of the film doesn't paint the young people involved in a creditable light (with the exception of one of the girls and one of the lads who are somewhat more restrained than the others). It would be foolish to deny that this sort of activity goes on, albeit it may not be as widespread as Outraged of Guildford might think. The final two-thirds, though, after the set-up, are a decent thriller of the "last man standing" variety, livened up by the fact that we aren't waiting for the killer to catch them all one by one, it's more a matter of who is going to do in who.

It's also fair to say that it has the look of a very polished movie from its first-time director, it plays well on the claustrophobic nature of its location (where, of course, it is far from alone), and its young cast certainly go for it in every way - they are all very good.

As something of an old right-wing git myself, I wasn't outraged - I was gripped all the way through, and rather enjoyed it.

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17 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
Refreshingly 18 certificate for 18yr olds, 10 July 2008
7/10
Author: Chris Docker (eyeforfilm) from Scotland, United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

From the sun-bleached fake Mallorca coastline all the way to sangria-soaked rough accents of young holiday Brits, Donkey Punch hits a tacky new high in English cinema. Squarely aimed at the 18-something bubbly-drinking Ibizia types, we have three luscious babes and four gorgeous hunks showing you can have sex, drugs and violence all in abundance, leaving behind the passé pap of American teenage road movies. Donkey Punch is ultra-chic and blows conservative values out the water as we race around on a luxury yacht. The story's realistic, easy on the attention span, and appeals to regular Saturday night audiences, dates and popcorn.

The moral of the story, by the way, is not that you shouldn't film yourself having unprotected group sex while high on various drugs. But that you shouldn't invite your younger brother . . .

There's no mad stalker. There's no deep-seated evil persona. There's just healthy young kids having a good time and accidentally killing each other. Nor do we find any sexist connotations. Men and women are equal here. Both in getting their kit off and bumping up the body count.

Says director Olly Blackburn, "We did a lot of old fashioned, journalist-style research. We went and spoke to people - yacht crews, DJs, and people up in Leeds and down on the South coast." Not forgetting it's a psychological thriller, he adds, "We spoke with a clinical psychiatrist about stress and trauma situations." Which maybe accounts for the realistic note that lifts Donkey Punch above the median.

Kim, Tammi and Lisa are best mates from Leeds. Off on a girls' weekend. They're up for it, giggling, dancing and flirting. They meet up on the beach with three rather nice cockney lads. Marcus, Bluey and Josh. Swigging champagne they've nicked, the lads boast about a luxury yacht they're crewing. They all get back there, where they're met by Sean, who's been looking after things on deck.

The girls are impressed and start spinning the DJ decks. The boys think of an excuse to give the owners if they take the boat out. At sea, you can play the music as loud as you want while swimming, sunning and doing a bit of social drugs (ecstasy followed by something brown with a bit of a kick). So how does it all go terribly wrong? Donkey Punch is an 18 certificate for 18yr olds, and refreshing in that it hasn't been watered down for younger kids or prurient American audiences. There are no 'victims' – just people making some rather rash decisions under pressure – and after a young lad mistakenly takes an urban myth too seriously. It makes no pretensions to be anything other than good entertainment. As a debut feature, it hits the mark and is a welcome addition to the bourgeoning output of original British film.

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Partying on high sea, end up in gore, 22 November 2008
Author: razaul_2000 from India

First half of the movie is boring, as if you are watching "American Pie" in a yacht.I really enjoyed the second half.Initially I thought they will be attacked by some bloody sea creature but the fun and drugs lead them to danger.

The best party of the movie is, when you think everything is controlled,it unfolds another chaos.There is a tug of war at time among friends,brothers and girls on the yacht for survival.A little bit of good direction could have made this movie much better, the story line is perfect.

I gave 7/10 because its gore movie with a difference.

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4 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Not a slasher movie, not explicit, not that good., 15 November 2008
Author: LaptopAcidXperience from Harrogate

Firstly this is not a slasher movie nor could it even loosely be described as a horror it can barely even be described as a thriller as it's largely quite boring, the sex is not explicit and the violence not extreme.

I personally didn't feel the film was misogynistic and was one area where the film did succeed by not overtly portraying the females as victims except in places to (unsuccessfully) elicit sympathy and create tension. The female characters are simply one of two opposing sides that develop as a result of the titular sexual act which accidentally results in death which is an alternative to traditional good and bad set ups (as seen in say Eden Lake). If this element had been developed and handled properly it could have lead to an interesting moral conflict instead of lazily resorting to the thriller default plot devices of anger, fear and friends turning on each other.

In addition to the script problems some judicious editing to reduce the running time to around eighty minutes (from 95) would massively help the films leaden pacing which contributes to and ultimately cripples what could have been an interesting and original drama/thriller.

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6 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Slightly More than Been Here Before, 24 June 2008
6/10
Author: destru-1 from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

There's nothing too wrong with Donkey Punch but it does suffer from an awful feeling of deja vu.

We have the story of some girls away in Spain for a weekend who get talking to some boys and decide to go to their yacht (or at least the yacht they're working on). As they walk up to the yacht one of the girls hears that they are falling for the boys "plan" and at this point you have to apply your suspension of disbelief goggles as there are a number of other times they'll have to be used.

The girls seem too streetwise to be so stupid as to allow the boat to be driven out to sea and the film takes an age to get to the "thriller" that I was expecting to see.

Once it does get to that point (something you know that's going to happen and the title of the film) it keeps a reasonable speed and tension and becomes quite gory. But the goggles keep having to come on time and time again to allow you to justify their actions.

Some nice scenes include the killing of someone with a flare (which was well handled and quite dramatic) and the point where the female lead breaks through the glass door but as the film moves on its own internal logic becomes more questionable.

Music and Camera work is what you would expect and nothing too special apart from one well handled underwater scene.

Other than that I could take or leave the film.

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0 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Only OK., 12 November 2008
6/10
Author: nickilancaster from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Well i was looking forward to watching this film and i was let down i have to say. The actual idea for the film is a good one but unfortunately it didn't really work as the acting was very bad and also the script was terrible. Right from the start you cant tell its going to be bad with the crap scally accents and the obvious stereotypes for each character. It could have been made so much better with more talented actors and a better script but sadly all this film seemed to be was lets see how many drugs, sex and swear words we can put in to make it interesting but it just wansn't. However it did get a little better about an hour into it when they all started getting killed off. The reason why i gave it 6 out of 10 as it was satisfying when the annoying scally guys got killed, i would have done the same if i was one of those girls. Anyway it just goes to show, scally easy girls don't get on a boat with total strangers and start taking drugs, its not going to end good. OK to watch if your bored and its on t.v, i wouldn't pay to watch it.

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3 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Tits and ass and gore, 21 July 2008
6/10
Author: seawalker from Birmingham, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I went to see "Donkey Punch" with my Brother and one of my Sisters. My Brother is a man of few words. Here is his review of "Donkey Punch".

"It's just tits and ass and gore." (Shrugs.) "Seen it all before."

Hmm... My Brother was probably right.

Sometimes, though, when the mood strikes me, I can be quite partial to a bit of tits and ass and gore, even if I have seen it all before.

Realistically, as far as slasher movies go, I thought that "Donkey Punch" was OK, Not a great film, but not a terrible film either. Just a bit uneven and not particularly well paced. Once you get past the interminably boring first section, with the 'posh' boys picking up the 'rough' girls and getting down to party on the yacht, the film picks up immensely, with characters deciding to have fun with drugs, fun with sex (in a very explicit, near the knuckle sex scene) and... fun with things that can hurt.

Ah... No more from me, except to say that predictably, for the majority of the characters, this particular party on the high seas is not going to end well.

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