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If a devastatingly handsome guy, with piercing blue eyes, shows up at your door around Halloween and says he knew your soldier son, RUN!!!!! We watched (I got this off Pinterest so I assume it's fan art. I loved it anyway.)

I actually own this movie on DVD because I got it from my neighborhood video store for $5 (unfortunately it was their “going out of business” sale but I got around 30 movies). It has a commentary track and an interview with Dan Stevens about it on it. I’ll watch it and write if anything interesting is brought up.

I don't understand why those kids didn't just drink the cosmos. I would have.

I don't mind at all, just was curious! The non-musicals we've done are usually about music in some way or like, Baby Driver, which is basically a non-stop music video sort of thing. If I recall, we did Long Dumb Road solely because Jason stars in it and it had just come out and we wanted to support him. They're at least tangential, and this one I just didn't see it, that's why I asked. But I like less-traditional picks too, so no worries.

I had the same thought. This movie was new to me, never read anything about it, so as I'm watching this, I kept waiting for people to sing and dance.

I don't mean to sound rude or that I don't appreciate the pick, because I'm happy to watch and discuss anything with you guys, but how was this related to Musical Monday?

To be honest, I enjoy those posters more than I enjoyed the movie.

Usually I have a hard time finding alternative posters. This one had several. Here are the other three I like. (The first two are fan art and not official.)

Alternative poster (Graham said he picked this movie because it's set around Halloween.)

Unfortunately, I've never seen You're Next so I can't use it as a comparison. Personally, I felt Stevens was pretty terrible. His line deliveries made me chuckle and he never really pulled off "threatening" or "bas ass" to me. With that and scenes like when the sister interrupts him in the bathroom, I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be hammy and over the top or not. And if that's the case, I'm all for it, but for me, it just didn't stick. The whole movie I was asking myself if Dan Stevens is a terrible actor or if he was mimicking the kind of actors traditionally in these types of movies. I mean, dude, I cracked up at the thumbs up at the end, but I literally couldn't tell if it was intentionally lame or if it was just dumb. It just really needed to land harder for me one way or the other. I think Scream, for example, is pretty good at doing this -- although maybe that's a bit of cheat since it is deliberately self-referential. Scream plays with tropes and genre conceits, but you're never questioning the filmmaker's intention. It's meant to be a funny, metatextual send up of slasher movies, while also being a legitimately well-crafted entry to the genre. There's no ambiguity there. I just couldn't tell how straight they were being with The Guest.

They didn’t seem to be bright enough to do that, given that one of the bullies CONTINUES to pick on the son after having the shit kicked out of him.

No joke, I'm not letting ANYONE into my house unannounced. There's no way in Hell. I guess I wish Dan Stevens had been a little more charming. I know he's preying on their emotions, but even still, I would be even more suspicious of someone if the said they had been friends with my son and I had never heard of them. Yet, within ten minutes, she's basically asking him to move in. I guess I never really got what the movie was going for. It starts off with some very dated 70's/80's Slasher movie style fonts with music that would be appropriate for that genre, but it never really goes there. I couldn't tell if the movie was playing it straight or being factitious, and that lack of intention made it kind of neither/nor for me.

* Boom boxes

Honestly, I don’t mind. We’ve done non-Musicals before (Baby Driver, The Long Dumb Road).

Sorry for the unpopular pick! I should have made it clearer when I picked it (although I did allude to this fact) that it was a more tangentially musical Monday related because the soundtrack played a role in the film in the form of a mixtape (Us would have been my alternate choice because it uses I Got 5 on it in a similar way. Drive would also be another non-musical musical example in this vein). It was also my attempt to include the Halloween horror/thriller vibe because I love horror movies. Sorry it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea (I hadn’t seen it for awhile and realized this might be the case when I was watching it with Cinco). Maybe I’ll make a better pick next time! Though in my defense, Paul, Jason (I think) and Amy Nicholson love it (she gave it an A).

I liked the lead actor enough and the action enough to enjoy this. But there are a ton of problems with it. People act inconsistently or illogically, interesting ideas are brought up and get no follow through. I thought it was very strange how quickly the family was just willing to him stay there. Especially after the father explicitly said we didn't know him and could have PTSD. Then that night was drunkenly telling him his whole work situation. I'm also not totally sure his motivation. He's a mentally conditioned weapon to protect himself and the organization but his backstory is very muddled.

I liked the movie a lot when Graham and I watched it. Watching it again on my own brought up two issues. 1) Anna showed complete disinterest on first meeting him yet she asked "Where are you staying?" Why does she care if she doesn't give a crap who he is? I would have expected either parent (especially the mom) to ask that. 2) That damn "fog" machine at the end. First it's clear enough for "David" to track Anna's footprints and find her boots then it's thick enough for him to hide in? THEN it's clear enough to hide almost his entire body even though he's sitting up!

Also also Free on something called "comedyhub" on Roku.

I might be a little behind this week. I've been phone banking all weekend with NARAL . I'm working for Joe Biden tonight ! I'm just excited to be working for someone I actually know and not have to be worried about what district I'm calling that day or pouring over policy even though I probably didn't *need* to do that. Anyway make sure you jerks vote if you haven't already! Ans be kind to people who call you, we are people too!

This movie is also available FOR FREE on Hoopla which may be available through your library.

I love both of them, but yes, more Jack Black as Madison. She is the heart of the franchise (for me anyway) and her absence was sorely missed in the second.

That’s wonderful to hear! When I read your Tweet, I wanted to congratulate you on your win, but I thought you might enjoy the surprise.

Well thank you, all and Paul. I did not expect to win because I contributed nothing to the discussion. But I also win nothing so that’s fair. I just listened to this after my one year post surgery cancer check up. So I did tear up which is possibly not related to my winning nothing but more because I also just got a call that all the tests and blood work came back normal. Yay me.

Congratulations @Elektra Boogaloo! Well deserved win!