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Movie Date: Knock Knock (R21)

Knock knock. Who’s there? An unexpectedly terrific date movie, that’s what.

STARRING: Keanu Reeves, 

Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, Aaron Burns, Colleen Camp.

DIRECTOR: Eli Roth

THE SKINNY: Evan Webber (Reeves) is a happily married architect, home alone for the weekend while his beautiful wife and kids are away. But when two lost — and very hot — girls show up for a wild time, their threesome quickly goes from sexy to scary.

RATING: R21


MARS

Femme fatales are the best.

Funny femme fatales are even better.

Bel (de Armas) and Genesis (Izzo), our two baddies in Knock Knock, have quickly moved up near the top of my list of all-time favourite movie villains.

They are unlike anything I've ever seen in a film.

Strong, sexy, smart, savage, sweet and utterly screwy, you never know what they are going to do next, but you know they'll have fun doing it.

They have a great time seducing Reeves. They have a ball torturing him.

They get a kick out of playing dress up in his family's clothes.

They relish destroying his wife's art.

I'm so envious of their inhuman energy and joie de vivre. They are forever in party mode.

In fact, I have a theory that they aren't human.

To me, they are malevolent pixies, and when I think of the movie this way I love it all the more.

As for poor, poor Reeves, he gives one of the performances of his career.

There is one extended scene where he's tied to a chair and the camera remains locked on his face.

He goes on and on, explaining why he gave into temptation with the girls.

The capper? "It was free pizza!"

Some have been under the impression that the film is unintentionally funny, but every laugh is meant to be there.

Knock Knock is as sadistic as hell.

In the future, it will be my litmus test to gauge whether or not someone has cool taste in movies.

JASON JOHNSON

Rating: 5/5

 

 


VENUS

Not since The Matrix has Reeves been so much fun to watch in a movie.

As a naive man with a midlife crisis who gets taken in by two young hot chicks, he plays to his strengths of acting both charmingly cool and exceedingly dumb.

One rather suspects Reeves is having a blast rehashing his old slacker character from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, albeit a little older and wiser.

And he is still really handsome, which makes us feel sorry for him when he gets brutally tortured by Genesis and Bel.

We say brutally, but the beauty of Knock Knock is that the violence is mostly psychological, so it never reaches the "torture porn" levels of Roth's other 2005 classic Hostel.

Yes, the terror is real, but the bloodshed is not gratuitous.

So if you're squeamish about that sort of thing, rest assured that Knock Knock isn't overly gruesome despite its R21 rating.

The ladies will come for Reeves, but stay for exotic newbies de Armas (from Cuba) and Izzo (from Chile, who also happens to be Mrs Eli Roth), the true stars of the show.

They give a whole new meaning to "girl power" - they delight in destruction and mayhem, and they don't care who knows it.

It's a rare thriller that doesn't take itself too seriously, and I love Knock Knock for that.

To be able to laugh and cringe in places you don't expect is a treat for any jaded cinema-going couple.

LISA TWANG

Rating: 4/5


THE CONSENSUS: Knock knock. Who’s there? An unexpectedly terrific date movie, that’s what.

 

movieKeanu ReevesUncategorisedAna de Armasfemme fatales