Guest House - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Guest House



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
While I wasn’t so sure people were clamoring for another Bill & Ted movie, I KNOW for a fact that know one was clamoring for a new Pauly Shore movie. In fact, most people outside of us older folks even remember who Pauly Shore was. Back in the 90s he was a raucous party rocking one hit comedic wonder that got made famous through stuff like Encino Man and Son in Law (his only truly GOOD movie), only to literally drop off the face of Hollywood. He even had a 2003 film called Pauly Shore is Dead that tried it’s heart out to bring him back, but outside of a few stand up shows, Shore has been largely out of sight for the better part of 25 years. So you can be certain that I cocked one eyebrow up a bit when I saw that Pauly actually had a starring role in a 2020 movie.

In some ways I’m actually glad that Guest House never had a theatrical release, as I’m sure that if it did, it might usher in a new wave of the apocalypse with its horridness, and taint the gene pool of films to come. Yeah, I said it, this is probably the worst film of 2020 and probably one of the worst things to come out of 2020, except debatably the virus itself. But even then, I think the wuhan virus itself cringed when watching this movie.

Blake (Mike Castle) and Sarah (Amiee Teegarden) are madly in love and just about ready to move in together and buy their own home before getting married. They find the home of their dreams out in sunny California that has EVERYTHING they could ever need. A gorgeous interior, lavish front lawn, and a HUGE back yard with a swimming pool and guest house. There’s only one catch though. The guest house is inhabited by a freeloading tenet named Randy Cockfield (Pauly Shore), rude, drug using, hard partying bum who has to be evicted for the new couple to have their home 100% theirs. As you can probably guess, Randy doesn’t want to move and the California tenet laws are REALLY pro tenet (even squatters have almost more rights than owners in that state it seems) and Randy puts up a MASSIVE resistance to getting moved out.

Blake, being an ex college frat boy, soon gets sucked into the debauchery of Randy’s world and before you know it, gets in hot water with Sarah, and in waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over his head. What ensues is one giant stream of sight gags and phallic jokes (seriously, there are phallic symbols and blatant jokes EVERYWHERE. To the point where I was confused on what purpose they even served), and man child jokes till the credits roll.

To say that Guest House is a train wreck is putting it mildly. The movie ranks as one of the worst Hollywood produced films I’ve ever seen, and proves that Pauly Shore really does NOT belong in films anymore. His college age “bro” antics were kinda funny in the 90s where they belonged, but now they just seem cringey and like the old man reaching for his youth party days. Even bringing in Pauly Shore alum actors like Billy Zane, Chris Kattan and the likes don’t do much for the film. The plot is painful to watch, and painful to watch Pauly make diarrhea and phallic jokes for 84 VERY long minutes. What makes this whole experience even MORE bizarre is when you realize that this was co-written by Troy Duffy of Boondock Saints fame.




Rating:

Rated R for strong crude sexual content, drug use, graphic nudity and language throughout




Video:

Being that Guest House was shot by a man who was a youtube director AND due to the fact that it was probably shot with a next to nothing budget, I couldn’t really ascertain what cameras were used. IMDB and several online sources have nothing to offer in terms of information, so I’m left guessing that it PROBABLY was some sort of digital camera. It’s a rather solid presentation, with a nice strong 1.78:1 framed AVC transfer that looks pretty much neutral in presentation. Color grading is very minimal, with the only real “graded” scene being when Blake and Sara go outside midst a cloud of bug bombing chemicals. Blacks are generally really good, along with strong facial details, but I did detect some softness during the party scenes outdoors, and the horrible puppet used for the reception is really cringey. All good, nothing really bad to say, it’s a solid transfer.









Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is nice and boisterous, with a strong musical presence that hits with nice hard rocking tunes, and lots of craziness during the hijinks. It’s not an overly ambitious track with the surround usage, but the yelling, screaming, and general mayhem of music and partying keep them active at all times. Vocals are strongly represented in the front of the room, and dialog is always crisp. Bass hits nice and hard for the party scenes, and a few whoomps and booms during the general operation of the rest of the plot make for some nice low end surprises.







Extras:

• Deleted Scenes
• Behind the Scenes
• Guest House Trailer

Final Score: ​

You might get the hint that I really am not a fan of Guest House, but I’ll say it again for people who didn’t get the hint. THIS MOVIE STINKS! Pauly feels desperate in his attempt to regain a modicum of his film fan base, and the rest of the movie is just a mashup of cringey poop, and drug jokes with no apparent rhyme or reason. To make matters worse, the mean spirited comedy tries to tie everything together with a gooey, sappy, center at the end that just feels oddly out of place. The Blu-ray looks and sounds more than nice, but the cheap extras and HORRIFIC feature film can’t make this a recommendation from me. Quite the opposite really. My recommendation is to burn every copy on earth in order to save others from being tortured with this drek. RUN AWAY!


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Aimee Teegarden, Billy Zane, Mikaela Hoover, Pauly Shore, Chris Kattan, Lou Ferrigno
Directed by: Sam Macaroni
Written by: Sam Macaroni, Troy Duffy, Sean Bishop
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Runtime: 84 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 10th, 2020

Recommendation: Run in Terror

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[Jack1949]

I love your honest opinions! Well done.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I feel bad for people like Pauly Shore.

One odd day in ‘07 or ‘08, my cel phone rang. It was Pauly Shore. He was doing a local standup show that night and hired me to come out and film it so he could review and fine tune his new material.

The show was hysterical, except the crowd, who just wanted to hear him “crustin’ the weez” and all the stuff that was funny the first couple times you heard it back in the 90s, provided you were stoned.

So the guy was really trying something new, and it was funny, but the audience rejected it in favor of the old played-out stuff that he was trying to get away from.

 

[Michael Scott]

doesn't surprise me. I saw him in a local show around 2012-2013 and he was having a really bad show. you could tell he was just bitter about life in general and angry at the audience. Probably worn down after years of what you described

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I don't get it... but I guess there must be some folk that like this type of movie... still doesn't make me get it... lol.

I did a double take on the 1/2 star... forgot we had that one.