Eli Roths' Knock Knock

so, what did everyone think? I have watched it a few times, Bluray finally showed up two days ago. This was completely different from his other works but it was a great high tension thriller. It honestly made me squeamish just due to the level of insanity. I am really curious what female response to this movie is....I had to show it to a buddy of mine and he was as spooked as I was. It didn't need to be the traditional kind of scary when you can take something most men crave and turn it into a nightmare. great flick, the making of was cool to watch to learn why this was made. I think I will be watching it with commentary next time. I am really curious to hear everything they have to say about the film. It is extremely rare for me to listen to commentary, but this one just makes me curious for some reason. perhaps its the real life aspect.

anyway, thoughts? has anyone besides me seen it? I was excited for the release since it was right after green inferno.

 

"Eli Roth Pretends to Be David Fincher". I thought it was ridiculous.

BTW, the commentary is pretty boring. It's mostly praise and happy talk...

 

well dang. from what he said in the making is that it was meant to be similar to movies like fatal attraction but with the modern day spin. I honestly found it morbid as hell and just twisted because it is perfectly possible for this to happen especially with how things go for some teens these days

 

I thought it was terrible and Keanu Reeves' performance gives a new definition to "wooden".

 

haha its funny you say that. From what I had read around on different pages, a number of critics were very pleased with his performance.

 

Funny, because the viewer reviews I've read (which hold as much weight, if not more, than film critics for me) pretty much universally agree he was terrible.

 

oh I agree there, I generally wont agree with critics myself. I suppose I wasn't terribly concerned with his acting? im not sure why, it just didn't seem to be in the forefront for me.

 

This is off topic but since we're talking about Eli Roth, your opinion of him may change once you've read his response to this question in a Reddit "Ask Me Anythting". I know it has for me.

 

Lol @ Keanu Reeves "acting". He's so friggn bad.

 

Roth based the movie largely on 1977's "Death Game". It has a lot more in common with the tone of an old "B"-movie like that than the more sophisticated "erotic thriller" of "Fatal Attraction".

I never saw "Death Game", but its plot synopsis is virtually identical to that of "Knock":

"Two young girls come to the home of a businessman whose family is away on his birthday. They seduce him and afterwards, however, they tie him up, torture him and trash his house."

And Colleen Camp appears in both. The Blu-ray's extras make it clear that "Knock" wouldn't exist without the precursor of "Death Game".

I made the Fincher reference because of the way Roth plays the movie. It reminds me a lot of "The Game" in many ways...

 

Certainly the least bloody thing Eli Roth has done. It worked for me, in that I was pretty pissed off at the two villains by the end. And I like that he resisted having them get their comeuppance, though there is an alternate ending on the disc that hints this would happen. And the blonde (Bel) was super hot. That's some hard free pizza to resist.

 

love that free pizza haha

 

is it cool to dislike Reeves?

 

I watched it and wasn't overly impressed. I'm also fairly positive it's supposed to be a black comedy rather than a legit thriller. I mean, playing "monkey in the middle" with a grown man's inhaler, Reeves accidentally hitting "Like" instead of delete on a compromising video then screaming in agony (my favorite part of the movie). And of course, "free pizza".

 

eli roth definitely had a bit in adding funnies to it. he seems to do that in a lot of his movies. just little moments.

 

I have no idea. He's always been awful IMO. I can't see how he even gets these jobs.

 

They were talking about his acting. It's hard to like a skill he doesn't seem to possess.

 

I thought it was entertaining enough, but more like an experiment in working with limitations (thin plot, one location) than a bona fide moviegoing experience. I do think Keanu Reeves was miscast--not because of the acting but because I think he's just not ideal to represent the movie's overarching theme. The film would have been more effective (and messed up) with a more believable "family man" as the protagonist.

 

I think it needed to be someone with enough ego to think he is so cool and irresistible that these women can't resist coming onto him. It needed to be someone thinking they were reliving past glory for a night. Someone who thought it cool to showoff his DJ skills. If they stuck Paul Giamatti in the role, or someone not considered good looking, I don't think it would work.

This wasn't exactly stud boy Keanu, though, as we saw when he took his shirt off. He doughed out a bit for this role.

 

I like him...I have no problem with his acting...but, it seems many love to hate the guy. I don't see the point to jump on the bandwagon.

 

I sincerely believe Keanu Reeves was directed to ham it up for this movie. There were scenes you could almost see him laughing through his lines. I'm not saying Keanu is the best actor alive, but he's proven in movies like Sam Raimi's "The Gift" that he is capable. Eli Roth probably told him "Can you Nic Cage it up a bit?"

 

The general take-away from the film (in my opinion) was that even the most loyal husband/father can be broken. Personally I felt the casting choice should have reflected that and that Keanu Reeves wasn't altogether that convincing because there's an undercurrent of bachelorhood and stud-ness (for lack of a better word) that kind of makes the whole ordeal too superficial in his case. On the other hand, someone like Paul Giamati wouldn't necessarily work because it would either be too easy to see him wussing out from intimidation or too easy to imagine him giving in to such a once in a lifetime opportunity too easily--he's too schlubby (again for lack of a better word). I would think an actor/character that lands somewhere in the middle would work better, i.e. a good-looking guy who really does resonate with that sort of earnest loyalty to his wife and children, maybe even a sense of loyalty that spills over from his off-screen personal life. Given what we know about actors in general, no one leaps to mind, but I do think a somewhat more inherently family-oriented actor would have made for a more convincing story.

 

Mark Wahlberg or Jake Gyllenhal would have worked much better.

Best would have been Robert Downey Jr - in the vein of this genius supporting role :

 

Tom Hanks was busy.

 

Frankly I was surprised they were able to get Keanu Reeves for an Eli Roth movie. He's the biggest name to star in one of Roth's films since Shawn from Boy Meets World.