The Guilty (2021)

Hated it...everything about it.

Very slow, with no build-up, or payoff. I felt no tension at all. Full of unlikeable characters. I hate when movies just drop you into the mix, with no backstory, or context...it's just lazy! I'm sure there are going to be people that will say 'you just don't get it'...well, you're right...I didn't!

The little girl was annoying, but not as annoying as the mom, (Emily). Neither of them sounded realistic...they just sounded like actors reading lines over the phone. I know that technically they are exactly that, but they're not doing a good job if that's how they come across.

Jake Gyllenhaal wasn't that great either...but I think that was mainly down to the script, because there were moments where he showed signs of competency.

This type of movie has been done before...Cellular, The Call...and even The Guilty (2018), all do a better job than this. If I had paid to watch this, I would be asking for a refund, or a free ticket for another film.

One of the worst films I've watched during 'lockdown times'.

Fmovies: Underwhelming & cringy at times. Jake's a good actor but this film wasn't great.

For those who don't know The Guilty (2021) is a remake of an original Danish film directed by Gustav Möller called The Guilty (2018) "Original Title is Den Skyldige". I watched the original danish film first and then the remake and writing this review without comparing them to each other is impossible. The remake is "EXACTLY" like the original. No changes occurred in the story or the script which is very great because I feel like adding new things to that story would've ruined this remake. I really enjoyed the original and I gave the original the same rating as this one (8/10) because they both are the exact same so it doesn't make sense if i gave one a higher rating than the other. I was concerned about that remake but had a little bit of hope that it would be good just because I imagined Jake Gyllenhaal in that role and after watching it, I knew that I was right about that.

The problem with watching a "remake" of any film is 2 things: 1- You'd know everything that's about to happen because you have already watched the same story before 2- If you watch the original first and then the remake you'd think that the remake is boring. And if you watch the remake first and then the original you'd think that the original is boring which is "not fair".

However, one thing that I saw that was unique and different from the original is Jake Gyllenhaal's performance that never disappoints. The film is a "one location" type of film so the audience is there with the actor the entire time and there's nowhere else to go to. So the camera is mainly focusing on Jake's face the entire 1h 30m. Jake's portrait of the struggling 911 police officer call operator Joe Bayler, (who is dealing with many issues like family issues, mental illnesses, shortness of breath, and mainly the emergency phone call from the kidnapped woman) was accurate. He was able to deliver to the audience the struggles and obstacles that Joe Bayler is facing and what he feels inside of him by using his face & voice only. Also Jake's ability to shift from an "angry" police officer to an "emotional" police officer to a "tired/struggling" a police officer was unreal and this is what's special about Jake Gyllenhaal because not so many actors can do the. And he kind of played a similar role before and that is detective Loky from Prisoner (2013) except in this film, Jake is by himself.

The directing was great as well. Loved how the camera movements are sometimes trying to make you feel somehow trapped like Jake's character Joe Bayler. The cinematography & colors were great as well and they were reflecting Joe's situation. Also, the music score was a bit absent in the original film but had an important role in this remake of reflecting Joe's crazy situation.

THE REAL QUESTION IS WHICH ONE IS BETTER, THE ORIGINAL OR THE REMAKE?

In my opinion, both are good because like I mentioned above, both are the exact same.

My rating is 8/10.

The Guilty fmovies. Wow that was bad. The sound quality from all the wimpering and crying was torture. Big waste of time. Just watch the original..

It's a thing with remakes, you know... It's too hard to top the original. Fuqua didn't quite make it, to top the Danish original, despite better actors, better created atmosphere, more intense music.. Why? Because the original from 2018 is such a good movie, with great script, and this is just a remake with almost the same story. But, congrats to Jake Gyllenhall, extraodrinary performance!

This genre type film has been done a good many times, "The Call" 2003 with Halle Berry comes to mind. But this trashy drab affair...No, no, NO!

When oh When will the M. P. A. A (Motion Picture Association of America) realize that they are absolutely useless at remaking foreign film classics? Look at the recent debacle that their remake of, "Ghost In The Shell", turned out to be! And if you go back a few years they made a complete mess of the Japanese cult classics "Ju-On" aka 'The Grudge' (remade, badly, in 2020 even with the original Japanese director brought in to help out...but they did everything their own western cocked up style anyway) and the 2002 cult classic film, "Gin gwai" - aka The Eye - from the superb Pang brothers, Danny Pang and Oxide Chun Pang, Jessica Alba remade it as "The Eye" in 2008.

This time around they take a Danish movie, "Den skyldige / The Guilty (2018)" which isn't a classic but was good enough not to have needed a remake by another country. I'm assuming that this was probably a personal like of Jake Gyllenhaal and he thought he could improve on it...WRONG! JG is a very good actor and one of my absolute favourite screen stars but, he completely and utterly went OTT on this and ruined it. His character was typical brash, loud mouth, angry, arrogant and bad mannered American style; not his style usually and I hope he makes it his last! The Danish 911 operator is very polite, calm and doesn't give you that feeling in the first 10 minutes of the film that, you should really take his sidearm away from him. The scripts are almost word for word the same but the execution of the role was miles apart in quality. Its an absolute must that you view the Danish original first; so you can see how it was done properly!

For me there was nothing at all I could like about this Phone Rage crap!