The Ruins (2008)

OK -- I know that this is far from high praise -- but I didn't hate this movie and I truly expected to.

I'd read the book a couple years back and was sufficiently scared, if not blown away, by it. When I'd seen the previews for this film, I was immediately annoyed by a couple of big discrepancies: switching a huge storyline for one character (cutting relentlessly at his own flesh) to be the obsession of another character -- a female one at that. Also, the book takes place on a kind of hill -- not on an actual Mayan structure, as the movie did. The first and last acts particularly pale in comparison.

Still, on its own merits, the movie's not horrible. Don't think I'm saying it's any good, though. It's just a kind of B-movie, not bothering with the character development and internal fears that made the book so compelling.

C+