The Guest (2014)

[baumer]

Discuss

[The Stingray]

An awesome, balls to the wall mix of The Terminator, Drive, Halloween, and The Stepfather, with a heavily stylized '80s look and feel. Like Wingard's previous effort, You're Next, The Guest packs more entertainment into 90 min than what most blockbusters manage in 2,5 hours (with a fraction of their budgets, mind you).

 

Also, the soundtrack is the best I've heard in a long time.

 

A

[CoolioD1]

This is what happens if you give the captain america formula to a nutjob. After this and You're Next Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett have done a really good job of making fucking sweet genre exercises out of fairly simple premises. I mentioned in another thread how this gives off vibes of Drive meets The Stepfather directed by John Carpenter.

 

Soundtrack of the year too.

[CoolioD1]

lol, stingray we basically just wrote the same review.

[The Stingray]

lol, stingray we basically just wrote the same review.

 

Great minds think alike, or something...

[Kevin Bacon]

Duuuuude, this movie fucking ruuuuuullllless. I've had it on my radar ever since I checked Wingard's IMDB after I saw You're Next, and since then I've been looking forward more and more to it while not watching any trailers. Forked out the 15 dollars for it on Amazon and it was worth every penny (plus the additional 20 I'm going to spend on the Blu-Ray because they fucking earned it).

 

Total blast, Wingard and Barrett just straight up get it and after this and You're Next I'm going to be eagerly awaiting anything else these two put together.

[Jack Nevada]

A big "whatever" for me.

[Jake Gittes]

The coolest motherfucker of a movie I've seen this whole year. 

[Joel M]

John Carpenter will be proud when he sees it.

[Lordmandeep]

After watching Downton Abbey I could not take the character seriously as being so ruthless and cruel lol 

[Jake Gittes]

Well, one of the jokes of the movie is how polite and friendly his character is on the outset, only becoming a sociopathic killing machine due to his desire to help the family (killing the father's boss) or when his super-soldier serum doesn't want him to compromise his identity. Hell, he apologizes to both the mother and the father before killing them. 

 

Anyway, this movie made me very happy Stevens ditched Downton when he could, because I never suspected he could be so charismatic, creepy and just plain fun in a role. That show made just about everyone boring.

[Lordmandeep]

Funny is Stevens is what made this movie any good, and what made Downton any good. 

 

W

[Jake Gittes]

I'd say everyone does great work here. Most of Downton's memorable moments involved Maggie Smith and Michelle Dockery.

[TheMovieman]

Reposting from the duplicated thread.

 

As with Wingard's You're Next, The Guest had plenty of potential and actually starts out well enough but 20-25 minutes in, it veers off course from suspense thriller to spy thriller then it mixes in some Nancy Drew (darker in tone I'll admit) and then horror for the cliched finale. I will give it some props for its brutality, it is certainly no holds barred at times but by the same token, it just goes into rediculous territory offsetting anything the film had going for it.

 

**½/*****, (C, 4.8/10, 2/4)

 

(and that's being generous)

[Jake Gittes]

I dunno, the movie had me chuckling right from Stevens' first appearance, when he flashes those impossibly blue eyes at the mother and starts talking his way into the family in the most ridiculously smooth way possible. It only grows more absurd from there, and I don't think it changes genres just for the hell of it as much as because it'd be way too boring if it stayed a "serious" suspense thriller all the way through, or revealed itself as an action movie early on. It could have failed, but I think ultimately the fusion of genres here is just about flawless, and is the best thing about the movie.

Edited December 28, 2014 by Jake Gittes

[Lordmandeep]

I seriously was expecting him to resort to his accent on Downton Abbey any second in that film. 

[TheMovieman]

Well, one of the jokes of the movie is how polite and friendly his character is on the outset, only becoming a sociopathic killing machine due to his desire to help the family (killing the father's boss) or when his super-soldier serum doesn't want him to compromise his identity. Hell, he apologizes to both the mother and the father before killing them. 

 

Anyway, this movie made me very happy Stevens ditched Downton when he could, because I never suspected he could be so charismatic, creepy and just plain fun in a role. That show made just about everyone boring.

 

IDK, instead of finding it rediculously awesome, I thought it was rediculously stupid. That said, I did love the soundtrack (bought it off of iTunes immediately afterward).

[rahvinn87]

I freaking loved this movie. It's just shot up comfortably into my top 10 of the year, something I didn't expect even given the reviews/buzz.

 

Dan Steven's character is simply the most badass, ice cool, chillingly threatening character I've seen on the big screen in a long time. What a performance.

 

Unlike other reviews I have read I didn't have any issues with the change of tack about half way through. It seemed like a natural progression from the quieter, more subtle feeling of the first half (don't think it would have worked had they tried to make the whole film like that). The escalation into excessive and brutal violence was played just right for me.

 

Have you guys seen how much this made at the domestic box office? What a crying shame.

 

9.0/10

[darkelf]

A very fun and cool-looking B-movie with an awesome soundtrack and a great performance by Stevens. I couldn't get into the story completely though and some parts were just awkward, like Lance Reddick for example. I still had fun with it and I'm looking forward to seeing Stevens in more roles in the future.

 

7/10

[JohnnyGossamer]

"You did the right thing. I don't blame you." [Gives thumbs up with a crooked smile.]

I was already on board after You're Next. Now, I'll be watching Adam Wingard very, very closely. This is my kind of genre flick, hemorrhaging all over the screen while sporting a Cheshire cat grin. Jogged fond memories of staying up late with the little bro to watch movies like The Hitcher.

 

A

Edited January 7, 2015 by JohnnyGossamer