Keith Saito While most of these reviewers are critiquing Rites of Passage as a possible award winning film, I will review it from the point of view of a casual movie watcher. I enjoyed watching this film because it was fast paced and kept my attention the whole time. I also liked the fact that it was filmed entirely in Isla Vista. I grew up in the area so it is cool to see a movie that was filmed there. The movie is marketed towards the college audience with its main themes of sex, drugs, and partying. Though some people may say that the movie is demeaning to native American women, I think that it made the movie more interesting. Movie directors put their own twist on historical events and shouldn't be critiqued because of it. I am Asian American and there have been plenty of demeaning movies about Asian culture but I have no problem with it. This is the kind of movie that should be watched for pure entertainment without any preconception of native American culture. It is one of those movies that you invite some friends over to watch while eating some popcorn. Overall, I enjoyed the movie but I couldn't fully relate because I have never taken any psychedelic drugs. The whole movie revolves around the characters in paranoia and can be related by people who have taken similar drugs.

Kolobos51 Rites of Passage is a flawed piece of filmmaking about a college dweeb trying to prove his manhood to his peers by dragging two van loads of his peers plus a professor (played by Stephen Dorff in a nothing role) out on a field trip to his family home in order to observe ancient Indian land on his property and take ancient Indian hallucinogens.In the meantime, his disturbed brother (Wes Bentley) is almost as obsessed with finding a woman as he is with Native American history. He, along with his deranged, grieving grounds keeper (Christian Slater), have been cooking, using, and selling the hallucinogenic flowers as well. Of course, it's bad news when these two unstable characters run up against a bunch of pretty young students, especially when a tragic coincidence turns out to link them in an unexpected way.The short review of this movie is that it sucks. Essentially, it's just an overcomplicated dead teenager movie with an above average cast. In one of the few highlights of the movie, scream queen Brianna Evigan pops up in a smallish part and spends most of her screen time in her underwear. In fact, most of the actresses are either in their underwear or bikinis for most of the movie but there's no actual nudity. Not much gore, either. And the characters aren't remotely likable so this is the sort of movie where you're hoping for everyone to die but disappointed when the death scenes are generic, mostly bloodless and generally forgettable.Rites of Passage is all over the place, silly, and kind of pointless. It's not really an anti drug movie, it's not hardly scary, and it's not often funny. The only entertainment value comes from Christian Slater's crazy, over-the-top acting as he scrambles around waving a shotgun, muttering to himself, and hallucinating. Basically, imagine Tucker and Dale vs. Evil made without any of the wit.

Tom Earn The film had a lot of characters, which had great quick character development that created a lot of tension and intrigue.It was a fun movie with some great scenes. It was not offensive to the Chumash. It also presented Jimson weed in the dangerous light that it should have. I did not like the ending, but that's just because things end too fast (like most films). And I did not like portraying psychedelics in a negative light but I separate my opinions from the fact that it was a very entertaining, very well written and well executed film.For all the critics, I'd love to see a film you made.

keepitsimple89 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.