The Ruins is about a group of tourists who get themselves in a wee bit of trouble. Ok, it's a lot of trouble. While on vacation in Cancun, they meet up with several other tourists from other countries. One of them is a German guy, Mathias (Joe Anderson) who's brother has gone missing. Amy (Jena Malone) and her boyfriend Jeff (Jonathan Tucker), plus her best friend Stacy (Laura Ramsey) and her boyfriend Eric (Shawn Ashmore) decide they will go help Mathias look for his brother at an archeology site in the jungle.
The journey there isn't a short one, and once they get there, they realize they don't have a ride back. It's quite a long way back to the nearest town, and they still have 2 miles or so to get to the site. After having trouble finding it, they eventually make it there. Once there though, the local Mayans won't let them leave. From there on out, they have to stay on the ancient site or the Mayans will kill them. But there's an even bigger, more evil presence than the Mayans on the site. One that is very deadly and like humans for dinner.
Overall, I was pleased with the movie. The one real complaint I have is the evil presence just isn't very menacing. It just looked very fake. Other than that, the acting was decent, even if the characters weren't particularly likeable, and the story was good. Also included on the DVD are several special features. Among them are deleted scenes, and alternate endings. I still would have preferred the book ending, but that wasn't one of them. There's also behind the scenes and commentaries to watch.
I would recommend watching this movie if you like horror. There are some gruesome scenes in this Unrated version. I'm not sure I'd say go buy it right now, but rent it. It's worth watching at least once.
