“Funny games” (1997, Germany)

Title: Funny games

Director: Michael Haneke

Made: 1997 in Germany

Final verdict: 4/5

When you hear the name Funny games you might think “Oh, this must be a really funny movie because it says so”. It’s actually the complete opposite.

A family are going to their house on the country side for the holiday. They have just settled down and filled the fridge when a neighbor (or at least he says he is) comes to the house. He asks for some eggs and they give him just that. Later he drop the eggs by “accident” and asks for some more. The family kindly give him four more eggs and tells him not to drop them and then just leave. On the way out he also “accidentally” drops the phone into the kitchen sink. The mother gets really angry and tell him to just get away before something else happens. Later on he gets attacked by the family’s dog and drops the eggs once more. Now one of his friends join him and they both go back and ask for even more eggs. The “neighbors” friend sees the golf bag standing in the corner and asks if he can take a swing in the garden. Golf club he later use as a weapon to start the “funny” games. The games themselves are just excuses to torture and humiliate the family. What these boys intentions are is never known.

The intruders have something very unusual. A “magical” remote control (yes this was before that stupid Adam Sandler movie). With it they can rewind time and pause the events ongoing. They use the remote in the end to stop the happy ending for the family. The mother actually succeeds in killing one of the intruders but the other rewinds so he can save his friend.

The intruders also breaks the fourth wall many times. It’s part of telling the one who watch a bit about the message of the movie. The movie was made to question the movie violence in general and it does that by barely showing any violence at all. You only hear sounds of the ones getting killed. You can see the bodies afterwards but no graphical violence. The only thing they show is when the intruders friend gets shot.

The actors in the movie are brilliant. They are very believable. The director ( Michael Haneke) really gets what he want said with this disturbing movie. Everything from camera positions to light and sound is top notch. He also just spoils the whole “the good always wins” cliché. In reality the evil wins the majority of times.

I could already see the confused faces before I wrote this review. “1997 wasn’t that movie made this year and in USA?”. No! That is the half crappy remake of the movie. Micheal Haneke was disappointed that his movie never reached the American audience so he made a “remake”. This remake would be completely in English and be completely “plastic”. The light the mood, everything feels Hollywood and everybody knows todays Hollywood sucks arse. Even though this is the best I’ve seen in the Hollywood style in a long time it’s not as good as the original. As they say over at Corn Flakes, “original and the best”.

So as you just might have noticed I liked the movie. I’ve never seen anything like it. Therefore I give it 4/5. The one point of is for that crappy remake (Damn you Hollywood)!

August 29, 2008. Movies.