The Guest AVForums Review

Casimir Harlow

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You've certainly got me interested in this Cas, I just watched You're Next a couple of weeks back and really enjoyed it - it managed to subvert most horror cliches fairly successfully - so looking forward to this now.
 
Looks Promising!
Cheers Cas!
 
This has moved to top of my must see list. You're Next was excellent, especially Barbara Crampton :love:
 
I'm guessing you mean "diegetic soundtrack," Cas (as in music emanating from the diegesis). Probably a typo.

I saw The Guest on Friday. It's good fun. (I also logged back in to correct the typo in my comment!)
 
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This review has really whetted my appetite for watching this film! Sounds to me like they watched Drive - thought we could do our own version of this because Refn Winding couldn't be bothered - and have succeeded.

I know Ill never trust Refn Winding again after OGF - people can read all they want into it but I suspect that Refn Winding was taking the mickey for want of a better phrase....
 
I saw it tonight and enjoyed it well enough, but I'm not as enamoured of it as you are. I'm not sure if the intention was to pastiche films like Drive in order to subvert genre expectations or just to openly mock them, but either way it came off like an (unsuccessful) attempt to emulate the things that made Drive (and others like it) great. That's not to say it's a bad film, because it isn't, it's just that it builds up a lot of goodwill and then sacrifices some of it with a rather limp final act that was heavily telegraphed. Again, this may have been intentional, but it didn't gel for me. It's better than average and I'd certainly watch it again, but it's no classic.

Oh, and a question to those who liked Drive but were disappointed by Only God Forgives: Didn't you watch Valhalla Rising? Now that was inaccessible.
 
I saw it tonight and enjoyed it well enough, but I'm not as enamoured of it as you are. I'm not sure if the intention was to pastiche films like Drive in order to subvert genre expectations or just to openly mock them, but either way it came off like an (unsuccessful) attempt to emulate the things that made Drive (and others like it) great. That's not to say it's a bad film, because it isn't, it's just that it builds up a lot of goodwill and then sacrifices some of it with a rather limp final act that was heavily telegraphed. Again, this may have been intentional, but it didn't gel for me. It's better than average and I'd certainly watch it again, but it's no classic.

Oh, and a question to those who liked Drive but were disappointed by Only God Forgives: Didn't you watch Valhalla Rising? Now that was inaccessible.

I think it does pastiche films in order to subvert genre expectations - but that the films are more like 80s/90s Van Damme etc. vehicles, like Nowhere to Run; the stranger-walks-into-a-town films. It was the style that, to me, felt very Drive. But pre-Drive. If Drive and Only God Forgives were on some kind of style progression curve, then The Guest would precede them. But I knew you'd be a tough customer to please, so it's good to know that you still enjoyed it.

As for Only God Forgives coming as a surprise. I agree, Valhalla was very ethereal. Indeed most of what Refn's done has been elusive to say the least, with Drive probably one of his most accessible. The problem is that, right from the get-go, they promoted OGF as being a 'spiritual' sequel to Drive. They talked about the re-teaming with Gosling. They talked about his character being the mirror of his Drive character. They talked about him spending months learning Thai boxing for the role. All this stuff paints a picture of what to expect from the film, none of which really translates into a Valhalla-esque style-over-story outing where Gosling has no boxing skills, is nothing like his Drive character, and where the film is nothing like Drive. And certainly not a 'spiritual' sequel, whatever that means.
 
I saw it tonight and enjoyed it well enough, but I'm not as enamoured of it as you are. I'm not sure if the intention was to pastiche films like Drive in order to subvert genre expectations or just to openly mock them, but either way it came off like an (unsuccessful) attempt to emulate the things that made Drive (and others like it) great. That's not to say it's a bad film, because it isn't, it's just that it builds up a lot of goodwill and then sacrifices some of it with a rather limp final act that was heavily telegraphed. Again, this may have been intentional, but it didn't gel for me. It's better than average and I'd certainly watch it again, but it's no classic.

Oh, and a question to those who liked Drive but were disappointed by Only God Forgives: Didn't you watch Valhalla Rising? Now that was inaccessible.
I quite liked Valhalla Rising to a point. Nowhere near Drive though of course. I actually hate OGF now! :)
 
I think it does pastiche films in order to subvert genre expectations - but that the films are more like 80s/90s Van Damme etc. vehicles, like Nowhere to Run; the stranger-walks-into-a-town films. It was the style that, to me, felt very Drive. But pre-Drive. If Drive and Only God Forgives were on some kind of style progression curve, then The Guest would precede them. But I knew you'd be a tough customer to please, so it's good to know that you still enjoyed it.

As for Only God Forgives coming as a surprise. I agree, Valhalla was very ethereal. Indeed most of what Refn's done has been elusive to say the least, with Drive probably one of his most accessible. The problem is that, right from the get-go, they promoted OGF as being a 'spiritual' sequel to Drive. They talked about the re-teaming with Gosling. They talked about his character being the mirror of his Drive character. They talked about him spending months learning Thai boxing for the role. All this stuff paints a picture of what to expect from the film, none of which really translates into a Valhalla-esque style-over-story outing where Gosling has no boxing skills, is nothing like his Drive character, and where the film is nothing like Drive. And certainly not a 'spiritual' sequel, whatever that means.
Yep, agree with all that. Its almost like Refn-Winding is saying 'you want something - I am going to give you the opposite'. I admire the bravery if you like but I certainly dont admire the results.
 
This sounds excellent - I note the score includes the sisters of mercy clan of xymox and love and rockets (in essence Bauhaus) so for me even better- it will be a blind buy soon as it comes out
 
Loved "You're Next" but the final act of "The Guest" was totally ridiculous. When Lance Reddick says "What is this ****?" I had to agree.

Still, Dan Stevens was classy and nice to see him swearing and being a bad-ass without simpering at whats-her-name in Downton :).
 

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