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mfunk9786 wrote:Eli Roth's new one, Knock Knock

New trailer-- looks like Hard Candy / Fatal Attraction For Idiots

domino harvey wrote:

mfunk9786 wrote:Eli Roth's new one, Knock Knock

New trailer-- looks like Hard Candy / Fatal Attraction For Idiots

It's just a rip off of Death Game. His one before that which was shelved and delayed until recently, Green Hell is basically Cannibal Holocaust. Quite a pattern he's got going.

domino harvey wrote:...Fatal Attraction For Idiots

Something something redundancy.

Isn't Hard Candy already Hard Candy for idiots?

You really comfortable lobbing the most hackneyed response imaginable mere hours after calling someone out on the board for the same?

I just found it interesting that a largely forgotten high-torture porn film was put in the same category as Fatal Attraction.

It's not really forgotten if just for its place in Page's career. Maybe not talked about but certainly remembered.

I'd have a hard time considering Hard Candy to be torture-porn either considering the extremely low amount of actual, well, on-screen "torture".

I felt short-changed on the porn ...

That's essentially what I meant by high-torture porn - much of it isn't shown on screen, but it's ultimately just a prolonged revenge fantasy/screw turning, and its director hasn't done any interesting or notable work since (including a Twilight film - unless you count episodes of Hannibal as interesting work). I remember thinking it was little more than a lightweight provocation when I saw it at a festival the year it was released, and haven't heard it mentioned anywhere since as some kind of important work. Apologies if anyone felt rubbed the wrong way.

carmilla mircalla wrote:

domino harvey wrote:

mfunk9786 wrote:Eli Roth's new one, Knock Knock

New trailer-- looks like Hard Candy / Fatal Attraction For Idiots

It's just a rip off of Death Game. His one before that which was shelved and delayed until recently, Green Hell is basically Cannibal Holocaust. Quite a pattern he's got going.

It's more an official remake of Death Game than a rip-off. The original writers of Death Game still have story credit, and director Peter S. Traynor, Colleen Camp, & Sondra Locke all have producer credits. Whether the film is good or bad or derivative or not, at least credit is being given to the original.

unless you count episodes of Hannibal as interesting work

This from the guy who (unsuccessfully I may add) tried to convince the forum that Martyrs was a good film and had his ass handed to him by Mr Sausage.

I'm of the opinion that Martyrs is a very good film with very interesting things to say. Mr Sausage does not share that opinion. I didn't realize people are "winning" arguments over the merits of films now? Not sure I'm seeing your point?

I suppose it’s fitting for a film this empty to have a dedicated thread filled with superfluous jabs - though I continue to be surprised at being impressed with Roth as a director given the low bar I’m working with. He consistently takes movies I have zero interest in conceptually, and concocts engaging rhythms that reflexively acknowledge the influences and lack of originality he brings in self-conscious, colorful beats- focusing instead on those pretty colors in sex, low-heat simmering sinister energy, strong lighting, set design, and well-paced flow. It’s nice to visit this after Ana de Armas has begun to rise as a star, for she’s easily the best thing here, and the only principal who takes her performance seriously- a key trait for this to function in any enjoyable fashion. Roth may be intentionally painting on a canvas of camp, but his priority is always engagement- and while Keanu’s role necessities a Cage-Wicker Man scream perf (ironically rationalizing his toxic masculinity as he has unironically argues for a punishment/crime dissonance, or whatever the point is of his character and wooden performance), at least one of the two women needs to be unpredictable and eccentric enough in her unhinged nature to earn that audience engagement with this trite material. Roth’s wife plays the ‘straight woman’ of the two, comparatively, and only subtly so- as de Armas thankfully doesn't get louder to chew scenery, instead straying just far enough into confident lunacy to evoke genuine fear as a walking enigma. There’s at least one scene with de Armas donning Keanu’s daughter’s garments that is creepy and novel in its execution and solely credited to the actress elevating a poor script and scene description to the next level. de Armas sells the line of insanity/taunting with enough nebulous aggression to warrant a C-grade comparison with Shirley Knight in Dutchman. Just that scene though, let's not get carried away here.

Also, apparently this is a rare Father’s Day movie- which I watched completely by coincidence after a recommendation by a friend on a fishing trip who had no idea it had anything to do with the holiday