|
|
Whistle Stopper - Funny Games (2008)
|
List Price: $27.98
Our Price: $15.17
Your Save: $ 12.81 ( 46% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)
Starring: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0085391176299
Format: AC-3
Label: Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)
Manufacturer: Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)
Release Date: 2008-06-10
Running Time: 107
Studio: Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: How to look the same after 10 years
Comment: Director Michael Haneke is one the most impressive filmmakers nowadays and this film exercise proves it.
Only a very talented director could re-make his own work and give a new dimension to the concept: create exactly the same movie, ten years later, with only a three minutes difference in its lenght.
Of course, some other directors have tried a similar creative process but never got Haneke's results (I can think of Mexican director Emilio 'Indio' Fernandez).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Subtle, brutal, and devestating
Comment: Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke remade his late 90's film Funny Games with this nearly shot-by-shot 2008 remake, starring Naomi Watts and Tim Roth as a vacationing husband and wife who, along with their young son (Devon Gearhart) are terrorized by two sadistic young men (Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet) who have their own plans on how to have fun with the family. Let it be known right now that there is nothing funny about Funny Games, as the film becomes a voyeuristic study of violence and the impact that it has on the viewer, even though a majority of the violence occurs off-screen, sometimes just barely. Haneke even goes so far as to break the fourth-wall in an effort to further get his point across, which isn't always necessary. The cast is brilliant, and Pitt and Corbet are more than suitably frightening in their roles. Make no mistake that Funny Games isn't something that's easy to watch due to it's tone and the fact that Haneke draws out the film for longer than necessary, and viewing more than once may qualify as being masochistic behavior. Still though, Funny Games is worth seeing just for the fact that there isn't much else quite like it, just make sure you don't go diving in head first.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Insane, Creepy...
Comment: Checked out "Funny Games" not long ago, good stuff.
Wow, creepy though. Two psycho teens terrorize a family while at their summer home! Each scene you expect one thing and something the opposite happens.
The scenes are drawn out, which makes each one that much more intense. If you watch this movie and never gasp at what you just saw, you might need therapy!
Good movie, definitely very creepy and worth watching!
Just another to prove that the scariest monsters out there really are "ordinary people"!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Funny Games 2008.
Comment: Funny Games 2008 was a decent re-make but wasn't really necessary since the film was basically the exact same as the original and was shot scene for scene just like in the 1997 film so if you've already seen the 1997 Austrian film then you'll probably know what's gonna happen next. Funny Games was an extremely intense thriller that was unconventional and there were scenes where the director all of a sudden manipulates the characters as well as the audience into thinking that the two psychotic characters are normal but there not, they don't live by rules or morals(they break a significant amount of their own "rules" in the film) and there was an odd but amusing scene where Micheal Pitt's character talks the audience by looking straight at the camera and saying if you've had enough or want to continue.
The film is suppose to distort reality but it does have a few flaws, the pacing was a bit off making it superficial and pretentious but there's an odd charm and novelty to the premise in the original version that makes it worth watching, it was slightly disturbing especially when the kid gets killed and all the violence was shown offscreen. Naomi Watts along with Tim Roth form the couple Ann and George, who with their kid Georgie (Devon Gearhart) are off for a vacation in their New Hampshire lake house, they seem to be a very wealthy family and as the story goes things start to get really strange when they begin to encounter the duo Paul (Michael Pitt) and Peter (Brady Corbet) dressed in white and in gloves behaving quite strangely and adamant in playing games as they soon find themselves captives under the hands of sociopaths.
If I could recommend which version to go for I'd say you can go for either this one or the original, but if you had already watched the original then you might want to skip it as it doesn't offer any other new insights since after all it's the same story, development and finale even right down to the heavy metal soundtrack used. Hanake's intention of the original movie was to highlight violence in society and how sickening the watching of graphic torture for entertainment really is and Michael Hanake crafted a superbly smart psychological thriller, there however was no new message in this version.
Both Naomi Watts and Tim Roth were great as the tormented and tortured couple with their young kid and Michael Pitt deserves mention as the chillingly cold villain, he manages to equal Amo Frisch's performance of the same character in the original he was great and quite despicable but the film wasn't that interesting, after watching the original a few months ago and then this one I felt kind of bored and thought haven't I already seen this before. Overall the film was average with a couple of outstanding performances especially from Naomi Watts that save this from being a mediocre arthouse thriller and the cinematography was fantastic but like I said it was a bit pretentious and annoying.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Waste of viewing time
Comment: Rented this over the weekend because we had seen a trailer for it on TV. What a giant disappointment. The scenes are really long and dragged out. Many of times the it seemed like there should be some dialog and the actors are all just sitting there. I guess your supposed to be 'feeling' their pain, but I'm like WTF why aren't they talking!? I don't think the 'victims' were adequately portrayed. Just kept waiting for the movie to be over.
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
In 1997 writer-director Michael Haneke (CACHE) made the controversial Austrian thriller FUNNY GAMES about two young men who terrorize a family on vacation. A decade later Haneke was convinced by producer Chris Coen to bring the story to America filming a nearly word-for-word shot-for-shot English-language version even re-creating the locations and sets as obsessively as possible. Shortly after Ann (Naomi Watts) George (Tim Roth) and Georgie (Devon Gearhart) arrive in their country home Peter (Brady Corbet) an eerily polite young man dressed all in white including odd white gloves appears on the doorstep asking Ann if he can borrow some eggs for their neighbor. Peter is joined by Paul (Michael Pitt) and the Leopold-and-Loeb-like duo are soon doing horrible things to Ann George and Georgie torturing them both physically and psychologically (nearly all the violence occurs off-screen) for no apparent reason other than they can referring to the whole thing as a game. And the biggest game of all is whether the family will be alive at the end. FUNNY GAMES is an intense experience driven by Haneke's careful manipulation of both the film itself and the audience. He's trying to shake up the viewer even having Paul address the audience directly several times with Paul fully aware of what he is doing and how the audience is most likely responding. And in one unforgettable scene Haneke pulls the cathartic rug right out from under the viewer playing with the actual medium of cinema in an infuriating and ingenious way. Roth and Watts give outstanding performances as the victims matched by Pitt and Corbet's deeply unsettling creepiness. Just as Peter and Paul (who also call themselves Tom and Jerry and Beavis and Butt-Head) alternate between calm and violent the soundtrack alternates between classical music by Handel Mozart and others and hardcore punk from John Zorn and Naked City. Though difficult to watch FUNNY GAMES is ultimately a rewarding and illuminating fi
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
