Eli Roth was pretty busy with releases in 2015 with this one and THE GREEN INFERNO. First and foremost, I'm a fan of Roth and his style, and it's good to see him changing gears a bit, moving away from "just extreme gorefests" and getting into some dramatic material. This one is a remake of the Sondra Locke classic DEATH GAME, which has a small cult following. Roth teams up with superstar Keanu Reeves for this one with admittedly mixes results---this film is not going to be for everyone. Reeves plays the everyday family man here, a good guy---a good husband, a good dad, a supportive neighbor, you get the idea, kinda like Michael Douglas in FATAL ATTRACTION. Character is even an architect with a beautiful wife, a'la Mike Brady of THE BRADY BUNCH, right? Well, wifey and kids leave for a weekend trip, and wouldn't you know it, Mr. Perfect Male Dad/Hubby is tempted by two hot young women that appear at his front door in a rainstorm---wet and lost and HAWT for his bones for some oddball reason. Once Keanu lets the babes into the house to use the phone, er, Internet to try to find where they're going...they come on strong to him sexually and you know where things are going. The opening scenes are played really well, with Keanu making it very clear he is married and NOT looking for action. But the girls are persistent...teasing him...playing with each other...tempting him...and finally, seducing him in a nice bathroom to bedroom threesome. Temptresses Lorenza Izzo (Mr. Roth's HAWT wife, and star of GREEN INFERO, I might add!) and Ana de Armas are quite the eye candy to look at, so wet and squishy and curvy and DELICIOUS to look at. The question becomes---what red-blooded American man WOULD be able to resist their offer of uninhibited, casual, problem-free sex? Two babes going down on your dong and each other and a night of endless positions and possibilities?!?! I mean...what a Penthouse Forum Fantasy cum-to-life, you know? Of course, for all actions, there's always a re-action, and the reaction here is pretty bad. Like in FATAL ATTRACTION, these chicks are psycho and the morning after the dirty deed is done, wow...they start to show their true colors in FATAL ATTRACTION fashion. The movie then becomes kind of a cat-and-mouse home invasion flick with Keanu and the gals, and it's kind of a weird gray area, I mean...you WANT to root for Keanu but yeah, he did betray his family and kind of DESERVES what he's getting... Unfortunately, it's the second half of the movie where things falter a bit---the girls kidnap and torture Keanu for falling into bed with them, they kill a visiting neighbor, post a video of all three of them having sex on his Facebook account so all can see it, and even rape him...Keanu does what he can in the part but obviously, he's an actor more meant for the static tough guy parts like JOHN WICK or THE MATRIX, rather spilling his guts to the gals in a dramatic scene that attempts to explain his motivation, which ends up being kind of a SILLY sequence where he compares the gals to "free pizza", of all things! Also, the budget is NOTICEABLY low in this movie, it's almost like they weren't allow to hurt anything at the location, so everything the girls tear up in the house are obviously setpieces and props set up for the occasion, and several calls that Keanu makes to the police are never followed through with as the plot holes stack up, but still...things remain pretty suspenseful and the ladies are such nice eye candy that it keeps you watching, and I'm sure it costs a lot of money to pay superstars like Keanu and Roth himself to even make a movie like this, so we know the budget went to a lot of above-the-line costs. I like the fact that the gals flash their stuff a lot, loved seeing their boobies and ass on display and Roth should've played that exploitation element up A LOT MORE since his budget was obviously so very low with this one. Still, I liked the ending and the revelation of who these two crazy chicks were at the end, although the ending, with a completely miscalculated "humorous" tone, is severely wacky and comes waaaaay out of left field for a movie trying to be FATAL ATTRACTION dramatic, but still...whaddaya expect? Eli and his weirdo humor are always part of the mix in his art. Partly a hit, partly a miss, KNOCK KNOCK is an interesting and, at times, suspenseful little movie that doesn't quite measure up to what is aspired to be, but still...I had a decent time with it! Use discretion on this one, don't expect the world, but...delivers enough to make it worth a look.
Eli Roth was pretty busy with releases in 2015 with this one and THE GREEN INFERNO. First and foremost, I'm a fan of Roth and his style, and it's good to see him changing gears a bit, moving away from "just extreme gorefests" and getting into some dramatic material. This one is a remake of the Sondra Locke classic DEATH GAME, which has a small cult following. Roth teams up with superstar Keanu Reeves for this one with admittedly mixes results---this film is not going to be for everyone. Reeves plays the everyday family man here, a good guy---a good husband, a good dad, a supportive neighbor, you get the idea, kinda like Michael Douglas in FATAL ATTRACTION. Character is even an architect with a beautiful wife, a'la Mike Brady of THE BRADY BUNCH, right? Well, wifey and kids leave for a weekend trip, and wouldn't you know it, Mr. Perfect Male Dad/Hubby is tempted by two hot young women that appear at his front door in a rainstorm---wet and lost and HAWT for his bones for some oddball reason. Once Keanu lets the babes into the house to use the phone, er, Internet to try to find where they're going...they come on strong to him sexually and you know where things are going. The opening scenes are played really well, with Keanu making it very clear he is married and NOT looking for action. But the girls are persistent...teasing him...playing with each other...tempting him...and finally, seducing him in a nice bathroom to bedroom threesome. Temptresses Lorenza Izzo (Mr. Roth's HAWT wife, and star of GREEN INFERO, I might add!) and Ana de Armas are quite the eye candy to look at, so wet and squishy and curvy and DELICIOUS to look at. The question becomes---what red-blooded American man WOULD be able to resist their offer of uninhibited, casual, problem-free sex? Two babes going down on your dong and each other and a night of endless positions and possibilities?!?! I mean...what a Penthouse Forum Fantasy cum-to-life, you know? Of course, for all actions, there's always a re-action, and the reaction here is pretty bad. Like in FATAL ATTRACTION, these chicks are psycho and the morning after the dirty deed is done, wow...they start to show their true colors in FATAL ATTRACTION fashion. The movie then becomes kind of a cat-and-mouse home invasion flick with Keanu and the gals, and it's kind of a weird gray area, I mean...you WANT to root for Keanu but yeah, he did betray his family and kind of DESERVES what he's getting... Unfortunately, it's the second half of the movie where things falter a bit---the girls kidnap and torture Keanu for falling into bed with them, they kill a visiting neighbor, post a video of all three of them having sex on his Facebook account so all can see it, and even rape him...Keanu does what he can in the part but obviously, he's an actor more meant for the static tough guy parts like JOHN WICK or THE MATRIX, rather spilling his guts to the gals in a dramatic scene that attempts to explain his motivation, which ends up being kind of a SILLY sequence where he compares the gals to "free pizza", of all things! Also, the budget is NOTICEABLY low in this movie, it's almost like they weren't allow to hurt anything at the location, so everything the girls tear up in the house are obviously setpieces and props set up for the occasion, and several calls that Keanu makes to the police are never followed through with as the plot holes stack up, but still...things remain pretty suspenseful and the ladies are such nice eye candy that it keeps you watching, and I'm sure it costs a lot of money to pay superstars like Keanu and Roth himself to even make a movie like this, so we know the budget went to a lot of above-the-line costs. I like the fact that the gals flash their stuff a lot, loved seeing their boobies and ass on display and Roth should've played that exploitation element up A LOT MORE since his budget was obviously so very low with this one. Still, I liked the ending and the revelation of who these two crazy chicks were at the end, although the ending, with a completely miscalculated "humorous" tone, is severely wacky and comes waaaaay out of left field for a movie trying to be FATAL ATTRACTION dramatic, but still...whaddaya expect? Eli and his weirdo humor are always part of the mix in his art. Partly a hit, partly a miss, KNOCK KNOCK is an interesting and, at times, suspenseful little movie that doesn't quite measure up to what is aspired to be, but still...I had a decent time with it! Use discretion on this one, don't expect the world, but...delivers enough to make it worth a look.
