Synopsis: A picture-perfect family is held hostage and tortured at their vacation home by a pair of punks with golf clubs. I won’t spoil how it turns out.
My take: My first big issue with the film is that the father doesn’t really fight back. He gets hit in the leg with a golf club early on and this obviously prevents him from doing anything but watch as the punks have their way with his wife and kid. They’re holding your family hostage with a golf club, do something more than hold your leg and whine. Second, I take offense at the director’s motivations here. Funny Games is actually a remake of the same director’s 1997 Funny Games, but tailored to a US audience, where the original was for Germany. Haneke’s intent with this US remake was to criticize the American lust for violent, disturbing movies by giving us a violent, disturbing movie. How pompous.
It wasn’t all that bad; there were some different tricks here, such as having the punks talk directly to the camera at times to discuss the family’s fate with the audience, or their random ability to rewind time. But, this wasn’t really all that special. It was disturbing at times because of how real it could be and I don’t want to see that. As an American, I want plenty of gratuitous violence, but I want it to be unrealistic and extreme.
The Rundown: Four deaths, although one gets taken back (you’ll see what I mean if you watch it). And one dog.
Best death: ***SPOILER*** I can’t believe they kill the little kid. Brains blown out all over the TV set.
1 1/2 out of 4 Zombie Faces
No comments:
Post a Comment