Shall we begin?
In this remake of Michael Haneke's artistic exploration of violence, a bourgeoisie family take their summer vacation at their luxurious lake-front house on Long Island. Shortly after settling in, two men take the family hostage and begin to play games that involve physically and mentally torturing them. The games gradually get more life-threatening, and eventually one of the men makes a bet with the audience: the family will be dead by 9 am the next morning.
Special Agent Matti
The most important part of this home invasion horror film is that the script is structured so that the victims never say the one word that every victim should say: no. That really pissed me off because it makes the characters so fucking annoying. That's all part of the lifestyle (conflict avoidance) but it totally shits me. People should stop being so polite and say what they mean. And I hate the word 'sorry'! And don't get me started on weasel words.
Apart from that, Funny games is a pretty standard family kidnapped by psycho-sadists while on holiday in remote location kind of film. It's very thrilling and there's some great violence (the dark, meaningless kind, not the fun Hollywood kind) and I particularly like the ending, which thumbs its nose at the generic Hollywood films it mirrors. Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet do a great nutter brother act while Naomi Watts and Tim Roth make the perfect upper middle class, ineffectual married couple. You might not get to see Funny games because it's not a Hollywood kind of film, it's more like a documentary that makes you realise that violence is not as much fun as you imagine it to be.
The crime, thriller movie Funny games is directed by Michael Haneke and stars Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt.
MA 15+ (Strong violence)
112 minutes (1:52 hours)
Film: 11 September 2008
DVD rental: 7 January 2009
