alphaville66
I like Haneke. His films have been getting better since Code Unknown. But I don't have to tolerate this crap. It's a well made film, but what's the point? If you enjoy it, there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with you.And cannot the woman pick up the remote and rewind the film too? Do sick evil monsters only have access to technology?The defenses of this film are much like those for Natural Born Killers. If you like transgressive entertainment, so be it.Leave me out of it. It's like watching Nazis torment concentration camp prisoners, while they laugh and manipulate their victims.
Sarah C.
This review is obviously not going to end well.*looks smugly into the camera* See, the whole point is that the "victims" here is not the nice upper middle class family who can't for some asinine reason recall the emergency numbers (how convenient for our young sadistic smooth-talking Germanic gentlemen) but the audience. How funny and original is that? Are you entertained yet? Aren't you? Why aren't you? *shoots you in the knee* Wow, I have been like super civil with you up to this point yet you choose to bleed on our brand new IKEA rug? What kind of a rude guest are you? Tsk tsk.This and many more is the movie's principal tone. Still the most offensive thing about it is not the self-reflexive yet pointless violence that we the stupid brainless masses obviously crave according to our bitter Germanic director I can almost hear (profanity related to giving yourself pleasure) over audience's assumed stupidity but never-ending boredom intertwined with cringe-inducing moments. There is no story here except sending a big "F you" to the horror/thriller fan. This movie would have worked better as a short student film but as our lovely corpulent Australopithecus friend in golf attire already pointed out it wouldn't be a legitimate full-length "thriller" movie with all of its classic tropes playfully subverted making the "prank" on the audience incomplete and we don't want that, right? (Yawn.)If you are into meta self-aware treatment of tired old themes or works containing a thinly-veiled anti-violence message, "Deadpool (2016)," "The Cabin in the Woods" (2012), Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange" all do what Funny Games aspires to be a hundred times better.*kills you so you don't have to be subjected to Funny Games anymore*
hdzenis
They did a great job regarding the psychotic scenario they ware aiming at, but believe me when I say, don't watch this movie if you don't have a strong stomach. It's not for everybody. On the other hand, if you truly like weird, wicked, and disturbed kinda movies, I would recommend it. It's a realistic visualization of a psycho home invasion all the way to detail.
tapio_hietamaki
'Funny Games' functions as commentary on violence in movies. It is a simple story of two ostensibly polite and pleasant young men, who take a family hostage and torture and humiliate them. The audience has no escape from the situation, other than finishing the movie or turning it off.The evildoers talk directly to the camera, breaking the fourth wall, and exercise full control over the universe of the movie. They are even able to turn back time if something goes wrong for them. Our sympathies lie with the ordinary, innocent people who happened to cross paths with them, but the movie shows no mercy. It revels in the pain of the family, the pain of losing a family member, the pain of helplessness as you are forced to watch on. It asks, 'Why do we do this? What do we gain by seeing this fictional violence on screen?' and we find that we have no good reason to give.The movie is fully carried by the actors' performances. Each one is given room and freedom, each one has their moments of spotlight. The movie feels like a play: character-driven, cerebral, often told in long, wide shots.I haven't seen the American remake but I hear that it's very similar to the point of identical camera placement.
AD
